


The Muggle Among Mages

by PhantomGalaxy13



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy, Mystery, Mythology References, Original Character(s), Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-05-30 06:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 69,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15091046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomGalaxy13/pseuds/PhantomGalaxy13
Summary: What happens when a young man from a mundane world suddenly finds himself in the Land of Fiore where magic and demons are as sure as the rising sun? Why overcome all odds with the power of Friendship!—yeah, no. That kid is going to be deader than all of his ancestors and future descendants combined.





	1. Chapter 1

I once believed the word magic explained every non explainable thing ever. Unfortunately, no matter how 'magic' could categorize people wielding sticks that shoot lasers, naked red men fighting robed white guys with wings in a political game of super morality, or the birth of the cosmos by deities fighting to the Super Death (because let's face it: if deities actually died it would be hell-a-lot cooler than growing old or trying to pull off Die Hard) …

Magic could never explain the impossibility of Reality.

So, I was… well I like to think that I was fairly normal with a quirky hobby, my hobby being magic—or well magic tricks.

It was a whole lot of fun. I would practice my tricks for days until I could pull them off in public in wowing other people. I really loved practicing it as much as I loved to see the look of surprise in people when they wondered how I performed certain tricks. It made me feel accomplished that I could make even the most cynical people just get really into my tricks by staring hard as if they could find some way to figure out my sleight of hand.

However, I had problems with this in my family.

"You did what?! Kain, you're supposed to be studying for your finals!"

"Dad, I told you, I was studying, but I took a break for a while, it's not that big of a deal."

Looking, back, I knew better. We weren't a rich family and my dad was especially hard on me for school. He wanted a better life and to him I was probably goofing off. Whether or not you believe him was your choice, but me? I just needed to get my mind off amazingly stressful things.

"Not that big of a deal? This is your future, Kain, and you can't spend it wasting time with useless things like that! You need to take this seriously!"

"I am taking this seriously!"

This was how it always went between us. Looking back… I can only remember the arguments I had with my dad. I barely remember anything really fond with him. I still love him, I won't doubt that, but… he was just so much grief during that period of my life. College was eating up all of my time and I wasn't all that happy with what courses I was taking. Magic tricks were a great stress reliever, but my dad always saw them as distraction.

"You need to stop and think of your future!"

"I am! Get off my back, old man!"

I… maybe if we talked better, it could have been solved, maybe if we actually talked instead of just yelling at each other nearly every time we met, things would have been different.

But they weren't.

After a fight went really bad, I went out to bike. On that day, the winds were bad and it looked like a storm was coming, but I really, really didn't care.

It started to rain hard and I still didn't care.

I probably should have cared that I was riding on a bridge when the storm became worse.

There was a car that was driving on the other side of the road, one that didn't have his head lights on, swerved right for me. I panicked and tried to break-turn—anything.

However, I ended up being thrown into river. But before I fell into the water, I swore I saw a face smiling at me that looked nothing like my own reflection.

  


There was a sound of mumbling that made me realize all was dark. My eyes were still closed, but my mind was slowly getting back up.

"Wa..er"

Soon, I felt my body jump starting with a plethora of messages—pain—wet—heat—shadow—sun—grass—dirt, but most of all…

My body jerked upward automatically, my lungs coughed up water violently while I gasped for air.

"Oh thank god! You're alright! You kinda scared me for a second there dude!" There was another voice coming from behind me. It took me a second to realize their shadow was cast over me as if they were looking over me.

"Are you alright?"

My eyes still hurt so I closed them back shut. "I-I'm alright. I thought I was a goner when I fell into the river…"

"Man, you're telling me. At first I didn't find a pulse on you after I fished your body out of the water."

"Aye! It was scary!" A second voice, it sounded younger and smaller agreed with the first voice.

But still, "Thanks a lot for fishing me out. I might have actually drowned if you didn't do that."

It was then I noticed something strange. It was somewhat hot out on the grass I was sitting. Not just hot, it felt dry which should have been impossible considering the storm just a while ago.

"No problem at all!" The first voice said as I finally looked up at—

Pink hair—white scarf—blue cat—blue talking cat.

"You alright?" The pink haired man asked with confusion.

"Yeah, yeah…" He looked a lot like Natsu Dragneel from the famous Fairy Tail series; the same clothes, the same hair, style, and physique. There was even a blue cat that stood on two legs with giant eyes with a small bag tied behind his back. Unless it was a hologram, and even then 3D animation and holographic technology was still in it's infancy stages, no cat alive was blue, could talk, and stood on two legs while having a head bigger than his body.

It was strange none the less, but as I subconsciously took in the area around me: a forest when I should have been in a park in Vancouver, the sun shining brightly without a single cloud despite how a storm was brewing so suddenly, and the fact there wasn't a single cement path within sight due to all the trees even though I saw a sign of civilization nearly everywhere I glanced before.

My mind was jumping to a rather farfetched, but potentially plausible idea.

"By any chance are you… Natsu Dragneel?"

The pink haired man's eyes lit up. "Oh huh? You heard about me?"

There wasn't a hint of acting in his voice. Either he was in a very deep cosplay and acting—which I heavily doubted due to circumstances such as the fact he was cosplaying in the middle of a forest and not a city park where I had fallen into.

Or I had somehow met the real Natsu Dragneel, which in turn meant that I had entered into a different world described in countless fantasy fiction.

The latter was the most unlikely, but then again science has explained nothing is truly impossible, only very, very unlikely to happen.

And it appears this amazing odd-defying event happened to me.

"Yeah, you're from Fairy Tale, right? Wait, how do you spell that last part? I sometimes get confused if you mean the body part of something similar to stories." Of all the worlds to go to, why this one? Most stories described hardcore fans going to their favorite fictional world, yet here I was in one that I was interested but never invested any time into unlike my friend Jerry.

"The tail part!" The blue cat, which I'm assuming is the mascot Happy, raised his hand out to answer me while emphasizing his own moving tail that was definitely longer than a regular cat's.

Natsu seemingly huffed with pride. "I bet you've heard many great stories about me!"

His easy going attitude made me smile and put aside my observations for a moment as I replied, "Well from the people I heard, you are great in your heroics," It was true, my friends who did enjoy the story loved the characters even if some of my other friends pointed out the many plot holes in it, their back and forth arguments were one of the reasons why I never really bothered with the story.

The famed mage beamed with pride with a smile that would last until the end of time because of my compliment. It was just too bad I decided to continue what I was saying. "But your collateral damage speaks in more volumes."

Happy laughed as Natsu blanched out of his prideful huff. "Err, dang it!"

I smiled at him and it seemed like he instantly got I was messing with him.

"So what's your name?"

Ah right. That. "Before I answer that, do you mind if I ask a few more questions?"

The two tilted their head at me. "Huh? Why?"

Confirmation. While I had this sneaking suspicion that my other world theory was more solid due to the fact I was speaking with a talking blue cat, I wanted to be absolutely sure of some basics I recall from the few times I've heard of this story. "Just for clarity's sake. We are in… Fiore right?"

"Yeah." Such a simple answer for questions I cannot even begin to start with. It does make more sense for me to be in this area instead of a park.

"There's a lot of magic here, right?" From what I could recall, they never really specified with this type of mystical magic. Most of my friends who didn't like the story, like Bob, told me their magic was just poorly written super powers. There wasn't much application of actual mysticism or respect to supernatural elements to the fantasy genre.

He argued it was more of a waste of potential rather than something he hated.

"I guess?" Natsu and Happy shared another look at each other.

"Oh!" The blue cat's eyes widened and he raised his hand—or paw again. "Are you from a different country? Is that why you're wearing weird clothes?"

I looked back at my red hoodie, brown and baggy cargo pants, and my black rubber sneakers. "I guess they would be weird to you. But before I get off tangent, my name is Kain Reynolds, nice to meet you."

"Hey Kain! So which country are you from?" Natsu asked, jumping to the conclusion that I was from another country.

I could lie about where I'm really from, but then again, I don't feel right in hiding secrets, which also meant that I'm not good at keeping secrets in the first place. Not to mention, secrets like that tend to get revealed one way or another so it's probably best to reveal it in my terms.

"Actually, I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I am from another world."

Oh. I really did expect them to scoff or call me crazy. I did not expect their jaws to drop out of their mouth and stare at me in shock. Wait, are mouths supposed to drop that long? Note to self: check how the physics of my world translated over here…

"Y-you're from another world!?" Natsu cried out in shock and awe.

It was in my best interest to be as honest as possible, even with my limited knowledge. "I believe so. From where I come from, you're a famous fictional character. It's one of the reasons why I recognized you so quickly."

No sooner than I said that, I noticed Natsu laughing out loud and going back to being proud. "Did you hear that, Happy?! I'm famous even in another world!"

"Hey! Hey! Am I famous too!?" Happy asked with anticipation in his eyes before I nodded.

The two were whooping in joy and repeating how they were famous even in another world.

However, I was more confused by their actions. "Aren't you going to question if I'm lying… or crazy? I mean, for anyone this would sound absurd."

The two stopped their miniature celebration and turned to me.

"Are you lying to us?" The pink haired mage asked me plainly.

"No," I answered with a bit of confusion at the rather simple answer. "I don't believe I am."

"Then we believe you." Natsu and Happy said at the same time.

I was surprised, but the same time I understood their reactions since they didn't really seem to let odd things like me get in the way of their job. But was that really it? They'd believe me that easily?

"Really? I mean, I could try to prove it… maybe I have something in my pockets…"

Even though I tried to fish to see if I had any of my personal items, I heard Natsu speak up again.

"You don't look crazy. And you don't seem like a liar, so I trust you." He said that plain and simple, as if that was all it took for him to believe I was in another world.

I then realized that he was simple. Even besides the things he does on a regular basis, I didn't really do anything to hint I was lying or trying to trick him. Not that I have any intention to in the first place, I might need his help later on. I guess that was a good trait of being a heroic character, they had most of the good qualities in them.

I probably should have reacted more considering the fact I was meeting supposedly fictional characters in a made up world, but then again, panicking like a lunatic wouldn't help me at all in the slightest way possible.

Huh, was that why Jerry and Bob's parents always looked to me to be the responsible friend? I guess I was the cool headed guy among us… but anyway I'm digressing again.

Information, I need more information. If I have any chance to figure how I came here, why I'm here, and how I'm going to get home, I need to have information or start looking for some that can in any way help.

"So, do you mind if I ask where exactly in the country are we? And where you two were going?" I asked before I noticed the horrified look on both Natsu and Happy the moment I asked.

"Aww crap! The quest!" The fire mage cried out before running with Happy past me.

Considering they were my only hope in even figuring out what was going on, I chased after them. Eventually, they ran up a hill looking over a small town with a well in the center plaza and it was surrounded by acres of cornfield that spanned some hundred acres.

Natsu threw his hands up in the air. "Here we are: the village of Juter! Now we can finally accept the request!"

"What request is that?"

"The village has had a problem with wild animals harassing their fields, and for some reason they wanted a mage to help them out with this problem. It was a low level job with low pay. We took up the offer because it's nearby a place we wanna check out later." Happy explained as I followed them down the road to the place.

However, even though I was doing my best to observe, anyone could have noticed how 'afraid' people were when we came into the town. The windows instantly closed all around us, doors slammed in the distance, and whenever I would see an eye peaking from a hole, they would vanish, as if all three of us were monsters.

Yet, my mouth seemed to move without me noticing, getting a message from my brain that I had not fully processed yet. "There's no men."

Natsu and Happy snapped their heads towards me as I slowly started to recall what I saw briefly. "Did any of you guys see a grown man?" I asked them both.

The two remained silent. Natsu sniffed the air and his face turned sour, as if he was trying to somehow find any clue to deny my observation. A small piece of me hoped I just jumped to conclusions.

"Something isn't right for a low level mission…." It was the first time I saw him solemn.

We walked up to the biggest house of the town, there was an elderly man waiting in front of the doors and slowly lift his head towards us.

"Are you the mages who answered our call?" The look on his face seemed to grow more worrisome as he continued to view us from the down up. Was he expecting something more for animal control?

"Yeah, we're from Fairy Tail!" I was kind of baffled when he said that. But before I could ask why he said that since I wasn't a part of the guild at all, I heard murmurs around the town coming from our back.

"F-Fairy Tail!? Oh thank gods, we're saved!" The old man's face suddenly changed into one with relief.

I know I wasn't a part of their guild, but my curious nature got the best of me. "Um, excuse me? Why did you say that? I thought your mission request was to clear some wild animals harassing your farmers?"

The murmurs instantly died all around us and the relief on the old man's face turned back into something of despair. "P-Please follow me."

We came in to the man's humble abode. The first thing I noticed was the table for four that was set only for two people.

He let us get comfortable on a couch before a small young boy who was probably no older than five peeked out of one of the doors.

"Litche, please, go back to studying."

"Gra-gra, are they the mages?"

"Litche, please, go to your room." The older man repeated before the young kid closed the door to his room.

"You have to forgive my people; we've had a very hard month." He then stood back up. "Would you like some tea? It's not much, but we can offer you some."

"I—" Glancing over to Natsu and Happy, I saw them both looking at me before I continued speaking for them, "That isn't necessary, sir. But please, what is going on?"

The old man sighed and sat back down across from us.

"It started a month ago…" the old man put a hand on his head, "m-my son… he went missing after one day from managing the fields. We all looked for him, but strangely we found no trace of him. My daughter-in-law searched and searched. Three nights after his disappearance, she thought she heard something and went outside to investigate… she never came back…"

I instinctively looked back at the table. A seat of four, set only for two. That was why I was attracted to that detail.

Fighting back tears, the elder continued. "It only got worse," his voice cracked. "Soon Hoggins, Terieo, Modaf… everyone who went out on the field slowly but surely started to disappear without a trace. It's gotten so bad that we had to ban anyone from going near the fields. Things have been desperate, we're running low on supplies, and we are too far from any regular town and we've just used up our money on farming tools before this madness came down on us."

"I don't get it," Natsu interrupted. "You guys posted that your farmers were being harassed by animals. If it was that bad, why did you lie about the message? It would have definitely bumped up the level if you told them the truth."

"W-We don't have money to afford the bigger quests…" My eyes widened as I recalled what the man just said. I didn't know much about this world, but I knew enough about fantasy settings to recall that the bigger the jobs, the higher the pay. If this really was a high pay job, the town would be further pushed into bankruptcy or worse. "The lowest one was all we could afford left. We only hoped that a strong mage would take this quest, and it appears our prayers have been answered."

"Don't worry." Natsu stood up quickly, his eyes determined. "We'll make sure who, or what is ever causing this will pay! Come on, Happy! Kain!"

"Aye~!" "Wait what?" Apparently, Natsu didn't really seem to register my voice as it spoke at the same time as Happy. He ran out the door with his flying cat right after him.

I also went up to try and chase my… would friend be an alright term to use right now? Regardless, I tried to chase them down after I looked back at the elder of the town. "We uhh… we'll be right back."

Unfortunately for me, I was basically a normal person. Running after someone like Natsu or Happy was already draining my less-than-stellar stamina.

"Natsu! Natsu!" I kept shouting his name before I eventually caught up to him while he was standing right in front of a giant cornfield.

A cornfield. … Cruse you, Stephen King.

If there are any Amish dressed children in there—I swear to god! "N-Natsu, wo-would you please… hold on I need to breathe… wait a second?" Oh wow I am out of shape.

"We gotta help these people, Kain. Whoever did this to them is going to pay!" He slammed his fists together.

"Natsu," After getting more of my breath back, I stood back up. "Look, I want to help these guys as much as the next guy, but you can't just blindly search for something we don't even know is causing all this!"

It didn't take much to tell that Natsu was slowly agreeing with my idea, even if he didn't like it. I explained to him we should gather information and look for clues, it would take a while, but maybe we could find something that could help us.

Time went on after that. The elder explained that there was no sign at all they just disappeared without a trace. Even asking everyone around there showed no signal for when or how they all disappeared.

"Augh this isn't getting us anywhere!" Natsu cried out, it was already getting late and curfew was going up. People were closing their doors and we still had not a single idea where these people could have gone.

"I even flew around the place," Happy finished eating a fish then swallowed. "Nothing looks out of the ordinary."

Natsu was right though. It's been hours, but there's almost nothing we got except that all of the people who disappeared went into…

Curse you, Stephen King…

The cornfield.

Trying my best to forget about He Who Walks Behind The Rows, I spoke up. "The last place we haven't checked is the cornfield itself. But it's a perfect place for whatever is out there to ambush us."

I heard a rather intimidating growl coming from Natsu. "It's time we took the fight to them! Come on guys!" He ran into the place with reckless abandon.

"Aye!"

I on the other hand hesitated. The set up was too damn similar and if me coming here was possible, whose to say there wasn't some kind of evil deity in there? I'm not Natsu, have no qualities that could help me survive in the first place.

But…

I sighed. "Litche needs his parents." Just like how I need to get home and apologize to my dad.

Natsu forsook all caution and ran head first into the cornfield with Happy flying right after him. It was only thanks to Happy I could even follow Natsu with how fast he was running… and with how loud he was screaming to whatever was out there to come out and face him.

Though after a while of running, we still got nothing. (That did not help my paranoia for anything with a giant eye in here) Eventually, Natsu's temper died down faster than his stamina as he came to a stop to wait for me.

"… O-Okay… can… can we… take… a break or two?" I wheezed for air as I tried to support myself by my knees.

"Jeeze, Kain, you need to work out more." Natsu was obviously disappointed in me, but I was too tired to really argue with that notion. I would probably need to be more fit if I had any inkling of surviving here.

"In my defense," I gasped. "I never needed to before today." I mean, I played a few sports for fun, but nothing worth working out over.

"WWWAAAAHHH!"

All three of us snapped our heads towards a direction in the distance. The sound that just came out was that of a baby crying.

"Ahh! It's whatever is causing the disappearance! It must have taken a baby!" Happy cried out while he pointed in the direction of the cry.

Natsu was just as quick to race towards the sound. "Oh no you don't!"

I soon begrudgingly ran after the two again despite how much my lungs protested that I should rest. "Oh great, more running..." I'm not even fat dang it—wait a second. Something isn't right.

All of the missing people were lost when they went into the cornfield, but no one knows how they disappeared without a trace.

Yet, out here, when they had a run a good distance away from town, they heard a baby crying?

But worst of all, why… why did this feel so familiar?

Eventually, I caught up with Natsu and Happy again as we stopped nearby a scarecrow. The crying should have come here, but there was no sign of anything. Huh? Oh hey, it's the hill we looked over before we entered the town—

{Eventually, they ran up a hill looking over a small town with a large cornfield beside it than spanned some hundred acres.}

"Oh no."

{"I even flew around the place," Happy finished eating a fish then swallowed. "Nothing looks out of the ordinary."}

I heard Natsu asking me what was wrong, but slowly my mind started over analyze a few simple facts that we went over today.

"Happy," I began, hoping to god that I was wrong. "You flew around looking for anything out of the ordinary right?"

"Aye!~ I saw nothing unusual!" He answered easily.

"Natsu, when we were up on that hill, we saw the whole town and the corn field from that high point right?"

"Uh yeah? What's the point of that?"

I slowly turned my head and gulped. "D-Did any of you see this scarecrow in either of those times we could look on the town from up high?"

Their silence could deafen a man.

The 'scarecrow' in question had a large hat that blocked its face from view and it was wearing a long, old, worn out trench coat with holes in it. But as we all took a closer look at it, we noticed its hands were far too sharp to be made of straw or sticks and that the trench coat had dried stains of blood on it.

Utter silence was around us. Fearing for my life, I took a step back—

ΩΩΩ! 

"Kain!"

Natsu tackled me as the hat titled upward, revealing a demonic looking skeleton with glowing red eyes that then quickly tried to bite my head off. I would be lying if I didn't see my life flash before my eyes in the reflection of those black, large fangs errruughghh!

"T-Thanks, Natsu!" I said as we both got back up.

Happy glanced in the direction of where the creature went, but with how his neck seemed to frantically scan the area around us, it looked like he lost him. "What was that!?"

"I have no idea! But that's the thing that's been hurting this village—" I stopped Natsu from running and bolting after the thing.

I knew what it was strangely enough. They needed to know what they were up against.

"Bubak."

"Wha?"

"The Bubak is a mythological creature back in my home world from the country of the Czech Republic. I've read hundreds of mythology folklore and in one of them they describe the Bubak as something like a boogeyman. It lures people in with a cry like a baby and then devours them… all those people… they're dead not missing."

Natsu's eyes sharpened as he clenched his fist, and fire was coated around it. "All the more reason to put it down for good."

"Natsu, don't!"

"Why not!?"

"Because we're in the middle of their cornfield! The source of their income and food! Your magic is fire based, and do you have any idea how easy it is for dry plants to get on fire? You would burn a hundred acres of food and money for these people who are already broke!"

Natsu gripped his fist tighter, but undid his flames. "Then what do we do!?"

"We lead it out to an open area, it's the only way you can fight it safely—wait," I then recalled the direction of where the creature ran off too and where we came from. Uh oh. "Which direction did the Bubak, go?"

Happy flew up ward a little higher, but then his eyes widened as he shot his paw out back and panicked as he did so, "It's heading towards the village!"

  


Natsu ran as fast as he could no sooner than the words had left Happy's mouth.

"Happy, where is it!?"

"N-Natsu! It stopped moving through the field! I can't see it anymore!" The flying cat exclaimed as he quickly glanced around.

"Is it in the village?"

"I didn't see it go in!"

Natsu turned back quickly. "Kain, what else do you know about the… Bu…bak?"

As he turned around, he noticed the lack of a short, brown haired boy with dark brown eyes behind him.

"Kain!?" Natsu shouted again.

"Natsu? Will you stop leaving me alone!?" Kain's voice came from past the cornfield.

"Well hurry up, we have to get back to the village quickly!"

"I-I can't! I tripped and sprained my ankle!"

Natsu grunted. He knew he couldn't leave him all alone with the Bubak stalking in the corn. "Just keep talking! Happy, watch out for movement!"

"Aye!"

"Natsu!? Happy!? What are you doing!? Where are you guys!?"

Both Natsu and Happy froze when they heard Kain's voice in the opposite direction of where they first heard it.

"K-Kain!?" Natsu shouted in shock.

"N-Natsu! Don't be fooled! The Bubak can imitate voices! It must have copied mine to confuse you!" The first voice cried out.

The second voice yelled out in response. "Is that my voice!? Natsu, if you go to him, you'll be setting yourself up for an ambush! Don't go to him!"

Natsu and Happy frantically moved their heads back and forth as both voices started talking at the same time on why they shouldn't listen to the other voice. Which one was the real Kain?

"I-I got it!" Happy declared as he pointed high to the sky. "I'll just fly up until I see the real Kain! Unlike the Bubak, Kain can't and won't hide from me!"

"Do it!" Natsu hurriedly said.

Happy nodded, before looking up and—

"NO! Happy, don't! If you fly that far high up, the Bubak will be able to snatch you out of the sky and neither Natsu nor I will be able to help you when he dips back down into the cornfield!"

"T-Then what do we do?!" Happy asked, backing out form the thought of being attacked while up in the sky.

However, Natsu's eyes hardened. "Happy, this way!"

  


I heard Natsu's voice from the cornfield, followed by him running towards me and reentering back into the outskirts of the village.

"Oh, so you didn't break your ankle. That bastard! He's trying to trick me!" Natsu glared back at the cornfield.

But I was baffled. "Natsu, how did you know I was the right one?" I was still in the process of figuring out how I could try to convince both of them that I was the right voice without going back in there and potentially being killed by the thing in my attempt to get to them.

The fire mage's glare stopped as he looked back in my direction. "You were the voice that cared for Happy. So it had to be you."

"Wait what? That was it?" Man, I probably over think things too much.

However, Happy yelled and pointed back to the cornstalk. "Ahh! He's heading this way!"

"Finally!" Natsu threw off his coat and coated his fist with flames. "I can now go wild—"

"We're like a few feet away from the town, Natsu! Just make sure it follows USSS!?" I grabbed his wrist and ran like hell when the Bubak pounced right for us.

It took only a few more seconds for the roles to switch with Natsu running faster with me hanging on for dear life. I might have been maybe a few years younger than him, but he was carrying me around like I was a teddy bear! "I'm tired of all the running, damn it! I wanna fight it!"

Even with that angry cry, he still continued to run while the Bubak slithered on the ground fast right after us, crying an unholy screech as it did so.

ꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬹꬹ

"Last time, I checked, I can't fight it at all! But trust me! I have an idea!" I saw where we were heading and warned Natsu to stop right in front of the city well.

"Okay now you can fight it, but you have to hit it in the well!"

"Huh? Why?"

I looked back to see the Bubak reaching us at an alarming rate. Me or Happy staying here would only hold Natsu back, so I just started to run. "Just trust me and do it! Happy, we should go!"

"Aye!~"

I slide behind a tool shed as I watched Natsu enflame his fist as he fought the Bubak. The creature was a slithery thing, avoiding Natsu' punches while swiping right for him.

"Come on, Natsu!" Happy cried as he put away his wings and shouted from right on top of my head.

"Slippery bastard…" The pink haired mage growled as the Bubak slipped away from a flame powered Axe kick that only hit the ground he was previously in. The creature snarled and attempted to swipe right at Natsu. He barely managed to avoid it, but a piece of his shirt got cut off.

Natsu growled before he seemed to suddenly stop and stand up right form his battle position.

"Natsu, what are you doing!?" Happy spoke out what I was thinking.

The Bubak opened its immense maw to eat up the dragon mage. However, in the last second I saw Natsu duck—then upper cut the creature right into his jaw. The creature flew upward, but not before Natsu quickly grabbed its tail and slammed the monster right into the well like I told him to do.

He took a quick glance at me and smiled before racing to the top of the well and pounding his fists together.

"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" He yelled as he spewed fire from his mouth right into the well. It looked like he got my idea after all, seeing that the well was a great way to trap the thing and allowed Natsu to perform his more devastating spells without much damage to the village around us.

But holy crap! Even from all the way here, I could feel the flame's heat and saw how the ground around him was cracking with fire bursting out. In a huge bang, the fire Natsu threw in there had also shot back upward into the sky.

Of course, something like this was sure to get everyone in the village to wake up and come right towards the center of the town.

"You there, Fairy Tail! What's going on!?" The village elder along with some women ran up to me with obvious concern on their faces.

I pointed over to the smoking crater of the middle of town, where Natsu was looking down the broken and somewhat melted well. "W-We found the monster that had taken your loved ones, but we threw down the well in hopes to kill it."

"I-Is that true?! Did you kill it?!"

I didn't know as I looked back right at Natsu. He still looked to be staring down the well he threw the Bubak into.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open as he jumped off the well—no sooner than he did, a scorched and hellish demon jumped out, destroying what was left of the well into pieces.

Everyone screamed in terror as they saw the Bubak, burned but it looked like he had grown bigger and turned into a more humanoid like creature to avoid the worst of the blows. Natsu powered up again but I looked around: some people ran while others stared in frozen shock.

If the fight dragged out, this place would be ruined! Huh? Wait a second.

I ran, surprising Happy and a woman holding a farm tool when she came running out.

"Miss! Give me that!"

"U-Uh-here!"

I grabbed the tool and looked to Happy. "Give this to Natsu! Now!"

The blue cat didn't argue as he took the tool and flew to his buddy. "Natsu!"

"Happy!?" His eyes widened as he saw what his friend was carrying.

"Natsu, decapitate him!" I cried as Happy threw the tool and Natsu caught it.

"De-what!?" He yelled back before avoiding a fist attempting to crush him.

"I mean cut his neck off!" I corrected.

"Oh! Alright!" Natsu, even though he had never seemed to use a scythe before, he held it like a weapon. Amazingly, despite being a simple farming tool, Natsu weaved fire around the tool and jumped right for the Bubak's head after dodging his tail.

With a loud cry, Natsu swung the scythe right into the Bubak's neck—and burned right through to the other side, making a clean cut.

Natsu landed back on the ground, holding the scythe before it shattered into pieces from the force used on it. However, it did its job of reaping. The massive body of the Bubak fell into the ground with his head slowly rolling towards Natsu. The fire mage started darkly at the head before filling his fist with flame and punching right into his head through the mouth. With a burst of fire, he made the head explode and burnt it into ash.

But for some reason, the body of the Bubak had done the same, turning swiftly into ash and being blown away by the wind.

Natsu exhaled before looking at me and Happy. "Thank guys!" He gave a huge thumbs up to us with a large goofy grin.

I found myself doing the exact same thing—I mean come on! I actually helped in slaying a monster! Despite almost dying several times, it was pretty darn cool!

Don't make me do it again.

"H-He did it! He killed the monster plaguing us!" "They all did!" "We're finally saved!" The cheers of the Villagers came over us as they all crowded in to give their thanks.

It was nice, but it was also a little suffocating as well.

"Where's my dad?"

It was a small voice, but it was all it took to silence everyone in the town. I traced the voice back and saw Litche looking at us with pleading eyes. "W-Where's my dad? H-He's been gone for a while and where's my mom? If the monster is gone, why aren't they back?"

That was all it took for the mood to sour. I looked back to Natsu, who looked a little ashamed to say anything. Happy, ironically was far from his namesake as of right now.

Which then left me.

I inhaled deeply before walking up to Litche and kneeled right in front of him. With my best attempt to comfort him, I said in the most caring voice I could muster, "I'm so sorry, Litche. The monster had eaten all of them before we came here."

"T-Their gone?" I wondered: was my father afraid for where I was? Would he be like Litche if I disappeared from his life? The last words I said to him… they weren't kind.

"They aren't gone. You are still here, Litche," I found myself saying. My mind was drawing blanks, but it seemed like my heart knew what to say. "You are the product of their love, so as long as you are alive, they will never be forgotten. Don't let the monster also take away your happiness when it's finally gone."

Tears started to swell on the little boy's eyes. "I don't want that! I want them! I want them!"

I could only hug him to somehow lessen the pain. "I know. … I know."

I needed to find a way home soon.

I need to say sorry to my dad before it was too late.

  


"Please, take this as a token of our appreciation." The elder said as he handed Natsu the money for the quest the morning after the crazy night before.

Natsu pushed it back. "We couldn't. You need all you can to rebuild."

"Regardless of us rewarding you or not, it still will take a long time. But you've given us our future back, so please accept the reward money for this quest. Please, accept it as a token of our gratitude." With that, Natsu took the bag of money. It would be rude to decline after that.

"Thank you for all your help." The elder spoke out and bowed. As we all waved goodbye, the townsfolk all waved goodbye to us.

"Man this sucks. If only I took this job sooner!" Natsu gripped his fist tightly.

"You didn't know and I didn't know. We should be grateful that we at least were able to help them in the first place." I still felt bad we couldn't save those lost people, but there's nothing we can do about it for now.

"Yeah," Natsu slowly agreed before looking at me. "Thanks a lot, Kain."

That surprised me as I turned to look at him with confusion. "What do you mean? You did all the fighting, I just followed along."

"We couldn't have beaten the Bubak without you!" Happy raised his paw as he said this.

"Uhh yes you could have. Wasn't I holding you back the entire night?"

"Well yeah," Ouch. "But that was good. If I went just buck wild, I would have hurt these people more than help. You made it so I wouldn't have so much."

Really? All I did was just think things through. "By the way, it never really occurred to me until now, but why were you okay with having them think I was a Fairy Tail mage? I'm not a part of your guild, let alone a wizard."

"Do you want to join our guild?" I wasn't expecting a question like that to come from Natsu, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to benefit me in the long run. I mean, I could go a separate path from the main story, but then I would be completely in the dark. If I stayed the story route, I could have some semblance of planning what to do with my vague memory in what Jerry told me about the story.

"I guess… if I was there, it would get easier to find a way back home."

"Then you can be a part of Fairy Tail."

"But I can't use magic. Can I really be a part of a guild like that?"

"You fought for us, didn't you?" I looked towards Happy who was wearing a smile. "Anyone who's willing to go far for good people is great Fairy Tail material!"

"Then it's decided! You're going to join Fairy Tail! … After we make a stop." Natsu declared.

Okay, so I'm joining Fairy Tail. I'm not as savvy as most fans would be for this place, but I do admit Natsu starting to grow on me as a friend. Maybe I might actually find a way back home and not die sticking around him… or it could be the exact opposite. Ugh.

"We are we stopping?"

Natsu looked at me with excitement in his eyes. "We're going to the town of Hargeon City to find my father, Igneel!"


	2. Hassle in Hargeon Town!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, Kain Reynolds is in the world of Fairy Tail. He's already at a disadvantage because unlike most people who find themselves in fantasy worlds based on anime series, he doesn't bloody read the story. Hopefully going in near blind won't be too bad... right?

"So what you're telling me," I asked as we walked towards the train station. "Is that you think your father is in Hargeon?"

"I heard a rumor that a Salamander was there! So it's my only lead!" Happy was all too eager to concur with his dragon slayer friend after he said that.

"Huh, I think that was the point in our world where your story began. You were looking for your dad, and then you met someone else while looking for him." Darn, I forgot who it was. There's a good chance it might have been a blonde girl though.

He suddenly stopped and turned to me. "What really!? My story started with me going to Hargeon!? T-Then do you know the end of it?"

I shook my head. "Sorry Natsu. I was busy with work and other things. I never fully invested in your story so besides a few character names and quirks here and there, I barely remember a thing about the future for you… and even if I did know, I have a bad feeling telling you would change it badly."

"What?! What do you mean?"

I sighed as we got our tickets. "Are you aware of the butterfly effect?" I'm going to assume no and continue anyway. "In my world, it's basically means the smallest things affect the big things in big ways. If I did know and told you were Igneel was, you'd drop everything and run towards that direction. However, doing so right now would have major consequences to the world if you met him when the time wasn't right. I've seen short time travel stories that depict the smallest changes could end up killing hundreds if not millions of people."

Natsu was thinking hard at what I said.

"Long story short: if I told you, bad things will happen that will affect everyone. You're going to have to be patient, and trust me. I feel for you. I really want to go home to my family, but I know there might be consequences if I take reckless risks."

The fire mage seemed to take that much easier than what I tried to say earlier. "Is Igneel at Hargeon?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not, but I'm sure going there will start your adventure into eventually finding him."

"Okay! We're heading there!" Natsu pumped his fists up. "Hargeon, here we co—"

  
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It had completely slipped my mind that Natsu had motion sickness. In all fairness, I didn't know much about him besides his name and a few vague summaries here and there, but I probably should have done more to recall this bizarre quirk.

"Happy, is Natsu really that motion sick?" I mean I've seen people get queasy, but to Natsu it's like Kryptonite that is sapping all of his energy like it would to Super Man.

"Aye! He can't handle vehicles at all!" Happy jubilantly answered me as we took the train ride.

There was a grumble or moan coming from Natsu's weakened form. It was probably a question on how long until we'd get there.

"I dunno, maybe ten minutes, fifteen?"

A chime rang through the train as an operator voice spoke out. "Attention passengers: we will arrive in Hargeon Station in… three hours."

"Whoops. I sit corrected." Natsu made his face wallow deeper into the seat after hearing that.

Happy sighed in a nonchalant manner. However, I guess now was a good time as any to really see what I still have from my home world. It's been so busy yesterday that I never really checked my possessions.

In one of my pockets, I found a deck of cards. This was because I was using them for some of my magic tricks. Though, I was surprised at how dry they felt. Shouldn't they have been drenched when I fell into the river? I searched more of my pockets.

"Ahh? What's that?!" Happy asked as I took out a small but stretchy elastic objects.

"Balloons. I keep them around for party tricks. The chicks love balloon animals." I'm lying; I'm a nerd with barely any social life. The only reason why I'm up late pulling all-nighters are for reviewing case files for my courses.

"Oooh! Ooh! I want to see!" Happy excitedly said.

Well if the cat wishes, who am I to decline? I could tell people around the train were watching me as a colorful blue balloon caught their sights, and after a few twisting and quick turns, I handed the finished balloon animal to Happy.

"Voila! Here you go, monsieur, a blue four-legged cat."

"Wow!" Happy, and even Natsu, cooed in awe as they looked at the balloon animal.

The pink haired mage, momentarily forgetting about his motion sickness or fighting it really hard, looked on with excitement. "Ooh ooh! Do one for me!"

"Me too!"

We turned our heads towards the isle beside us where a kid looked at me with excitement. One of the parents of the child quickly looked at their child with wide eyes.

"Sweetie, don't bother them. I am so sorry, sir." The mother said towards me as she tried to hug her child closer.

"What type of animal do you want?" That caught the child's attention as the family looked at me. "How about this one?" I picked up a yellow balloon and after a while, I finished the animal and handed it over to the young boy. "This is one is a giraffe."

The young boy gasped as he took the balloon toy in his hands. However, more sounds came from around the train. "Ooh me too! Me too!"

Apparently, I had attracted more of the children around the cart. I didn't have that many balloons left, but I'm sure there should be enough in this cart.

Time flew by as after giving the last kid a balloon poodle; we had finally arrived in Hargeon Station.

"Hey, Kain, I want one now!" Natsu, feeling somewhat better now that the train stopped, demanded of me as we got off the train.

"Natsu, I gave the last one to the girl." I responded, much to his dismay and obvious pouting.

"I didn't know you could do that." Happy said as he continued to play with his balloon cat.

"I worked as a magician for children's birthdays." I mentioned. It was my favorite thing to do, and I'm glad I still technically get to do that here.

"Wait, I thought you said you weren't a mage?"

"I said magician, not mage. I don't have any magic, but I can do tricks that people aren't able to pick up on and make it look like magic. Here, I've got one with this deck of cards."

I took out my deck of cards and held them all in my hand. After making a few preparations without either of them noticing, I dropped one card to the ground. "Don't pick it up, now… watch this…"

By just putting my hand out, the card I dropped slowly went back to my hand the same way it fell down.

Natsu and Happy gapped. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?"

I stared in disbelief at the two. "Natsu, you can summon fire at will, you were raised by a dragon, and you fought a demon yesterday, but something like this surprises you?"

"But that was magic! Y-You said you can't do magic!"

"I can't! This is a trick to make people question how I did it."

"Well it worked! How did you do that!?"

"A good magician never reveals his tricks. It removes what little magic they have in them." I smiled as I put the deck of cards back into their box.

"Aww come on, tell me!"

"I can't. It's part of the magician code."

"Please!?"

"Aren't we searching for your dad?"

Natsu blinked before realization hit him like a truck. He really forgot that for a second?

"Ahh right! Igneel!" He ran ahead with full speed with happy flying right after him. I rolled my eyes and looked around. There was no sign of the dragon here. Though, there was the problem that I really didn't remember where Igneel actually was or if Jerry actually told me where the father of Natsu was in the first place.

Oh wait, Jerry kept the spoilers to a minimum because he wanted me to experience them for myself. Well that has come to bite me in the ass.

But what exactly did, he tell me? All I seem to recall at the top of my head are people like uh Juvia, Gajeel, Laxus… and a few here and there. I think there was mention of these really, really important characters called the Jiggle Butt Gang.

I… I'm going to trust Jerry on that last one. My life does technically count on it. I really hope he wasn't joking with that last one; I could never tell with him some times.

As I kept thinking about these things, I saw Natsu up ahead moving through a crowd screaming about Salamander. Instantly, I spotted the pink haired mage deflate. Considering there wasn't a huge dragon hidden among a fan of cooing girls, I'm going to assume it wasn't his dad.

"Man that's not Igneel…" Natsu walked away from the crowd while the man was in the middle of talking. I noticed the gang of female looking dangerously at Natsu's direction.

Some were even running up to him before I stood between them and raised a hand motion to stop them.

"L-Ladies! Please, be reasonable, my friend here is just… thought your friend was an old friend of his." Yeesh!? What the heck; are fangirls really that vicious or is it only in this world?

"He's right, there's no harm in a misunderstanding," The man in the center, he had purple hair and rather extravagant clothes about him strode towards me and Natsu and quickly wrote down on two pieces of paper. "In fact, here, as a sign of good fortune, take these autographs."

Unfortunately, Natsu seemed to misunderstand how bloodthirsty the girls were around us. "No thanAAcck!?"

Oh no, who could have stepped on his toes like that?

"Thank you very much sir." I took the cards out of his hands and sent a look to Natsu despite him asking why I did that.

To my surprise, the man—or Salamander to the girls—activated a magic circle that allowed him to fly on a string of fire.

Wow. That's a lot cooler looking in real life. How are his clothes not burning? At least for Natsu, I'm assuming he's fire proof or something, but how do his clothes work without being singed or burned?

Salamander invited everyone to some party at the docks, maybe we could crash it for free food or something later, so I took note of it.

"Who was that guy?" Natsu was confused, but I could tell he was disappointed this was a dead end.

"He's a scumbag," We turned around and then I noticed this beautiful blonde walking up to us. Lucy Heartifila right? It wasn't hard to see her near every picture of Natsu Dragneel when it came to this series. Was she the one we had to meet? "Thanks a lot you guys. I owe you."

We owe her? How?

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eventually, she wanted to treat us to lunch for her thanks. I declined politely.

I tried to decline politely, but Natsu and Happy jumped for joy at the offer.

To be fair, when we were in the village, the few meals we had were rather small. Heck Natsu didn't even want to eat if it wasn't bad manners towards our host. Here, though… he was stuffing himself full along with Happy.

I looked to Lucy with an apologetic manner. "I'm truly sorry about this, Lucy."

"Oh it's the least I could… hey wait! How'd you know my name!?" Oh she didn't say it yet? Hmm, I might need to be more careful about that in the future.

"Kain here is from another world! And he says that we're all part of a fictional story!" At least Natsu had the decency to swallow before he said that though it did absolutely nothing in explaining anything to anyone.

Lucy eyed me weirdly. "Another world? That's impossible!" Okay, yeah. That was a much more appropriate response to people if I had told the truth.

"It's true!" "Aye!" Natsu and Happy tried to defend me as Lucy slowly looked at me. I did appreciate them willing to go far, but now I was feeling judged for taking advantage of them.

"I don't really mind if you believe me or not, but if I may ask, why are you thanking us? I don't think we did much in the first place." She actually seemed surprised. Maybe she assumed I would say that I was just joking, or saying it was a trick. However, it looked like she pushed thoughts about me being crazy or insane on the side in favor of explaining what had happened.

Lucy explained about one of the rings the Salamander wore being something that attracts females against their will. That's a rather scary and despicable thing to do, but the thought of their being magical tools… maybe I could get one in the near future. I'd have to make another note of that.

The conversation continued on beyond that. Lucy asked who we were and after introductions, she asked who Natsu was looking for.

"Wait, a dragon? Something like that wouldn't have been in the middle of town." Lucy pointed out.

Natsu and Happy stared with dumbfounded reality.

"Don't tell me you two only thought about it now!?" Lucy said before looking to me. "What about you?"

I put the glass of water down calmly. "If the person himself wasn't here, who's to say there isn't a clue to where he is? Maybe this Salamander guy took the name after seeing Igneel somewhere else."

I was startled by Natsu suddenly standing up from the table and slamming his hands down. "What!? Really!? Auuugh! And I didn't ask him! Kain, why didn't you say anything about that!?" After rubbing his hair frantically, Natsu looked at me with shocked eyes.

"I honestly didn't think about it until now. Sorry." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Now we gotta find that guy again and see if he saw Igneel somewhere! Uhh where did he say he was going?"

"The docks, Natsu, though I think he was inviting only the females." I answered nonchalantly, it's been only a day and I already feel as if that even though I've told him, he's just going to ignore me and go there anyway.

"Then let's go!" And there we go.

He ran up before stopping in his tracks. "Ah right! Thank you for the meal!" Natsu and Happy prostrated themselves before Lucy, making the girl feel uncomfortable before he and Happy bolted out the door.

I looked to Lucy with a nervous smile. "Sorry about that. I should probably go after him. I really do hope he knows where the docks actually are though."

"Wait," She stood up a second after I did. "What Natsu said about you being from another world, is that true?"

"That's for you to decide!" I yelled back as I ran after Natsu even if it was slower than his pace.

  
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After some time chasing down Natsu, we were all able to get down to the docks. It wasn't hard to figure out the large luxury cruise with all the women lining up to had to be the one Salamander was in.

"We gotta meet the Salamander!" Natsu tried to talk to the body guards preventing us from going close.

"Sorry, kid. Ladies only." Though… it was strange. For security guards, they looked awfully like goons or henchmen for bad guys. Not to mention, they're not even wearing proper security uniform if they worked in a cruise ship.

Then there was the **stuff** they were bringing in into the ship. The ship itself looked like it was powered by steam, since I'm assuming that Fairy Tail was early Industrial Revolution when compared to Earth, but the amount of coal they were bringing to the ship… it seemed a lot more than just for a cruise ship around the bay area.

Even if it was for refueling in the long run, there was something else that caught my attention: the amount of food and supplies going in. There was a lot more than just for the party, I may not be qualified to judge what's needed, but the amount of supplies they were bringing looked more like a trip than a cruise.

And lastly, even if I was wrong on the food and the amount of coal being brought in… there was something else. Some of those boxes had items inside them that sounded metallic and something that gave me a feeling that you shouldn't be bringing those to a wooden ship.

"Is there going to be a problem here?" It was strange to hear another voice while Natsu and the body guards were arguing—maybe he saw that Natsu was about to deck the guy before stepping in—but I noticed that he was the first person I saw that looked completely official.

He wore a white navy suit and hat and had colorful looking badges decorated on his suit. He was actually much more handsome than Salamander with his sharp but soft face, white short hair, and gray eyes.

The captain was holding some kind of container for food before he introduced himself to us. "I am Captain Fero of this cruise, is there anything I can help you two young men with?"

"I'm a cat!" Happy proclaimed.

"Yeah, and Kain here is with us too!" Natsu pointed to me while keeping his sight on the captain.

Chosen over a cat huh? Well that's a new low.

Anyway, Natsu demanded to see Salamander since he had a few questions.

"I'm sorry good sir, but he is an honored guest. I can't call him out, but I can leave a message for you if you would like. When he does come here, I will be sure to ask. You can come back here before we leave and I'll be here to tell you the answer."

"Oh in that case!" While Natsu was telling him the simple question, I noticed Fero looking at me. For one instant, I swore his smile wasn't as sincere as he made it to be.

Fero took a dish and opened up, revealing a gross and putrid looking dish that made me close my noise. "Now then with that settled how would you like to try this Purredian Broalisk Bowl created from the intestine of a decaying ice monster?" Oh god that was sick! And—oh right! Natsu has a better sense of smell than me. That's why he looks like he's going to barf again.

"N-No thanks! Come on, Happy, let's go!"

"A-Aye…"

The two ran ahead to get away from the dish.

"That's such a shame." I heard the captain say before I took one more look at him… then left after Natsu and the others.

  
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"Ack! Ack! It smelled so bad I can taste it in my mouth!" Natsu cried as he started wiping his tongue with snacks I was sure to save before we entered the city.

"What kind of sickos eat monsters intestine? Especially a Boralisk?" Happy whined as he licked fish constantly to remove the smell and taste.

…

Something about this doesn't feel right, and no it's not asking what a Boralisk is, I can ask that later. Jerry never really told me much about the very first chapter. He really did want me to experience it myself—just not experience it while being in the story.

"Something wrong, Kain? You keep looking back at the boat."

Without facing Natsu, I answered him. "What do you guys think about that captain?"

"He seemed nice enough to me." Happy spoke up.

"Although, now that I think about it," I looked back to Natsu who seemed to be thinking about something. "He smelled weird."

Smell? "What smell in particular was it that made you think it was weird?"

"Well, he smelled like the ocean, but there was another smell. Maybe bleach? Might have been his clothes with how clean they looked, but it was kinda strong."

Bleach?

Why bleach? From the top of my head, I saw bleach used a lot in crime shows to cover up blood, but again that's just jumping to a conclusion. Maybe he was just a guy who liked being clean.

{ _Lucy explained about one of the rings the Salamander wore being something that attracts females against their will.}_

Wait a second.

Why was he carrying out food all the way to us? And now that I think about it, the 'guards' were surprised with what was in the dish too. If that was really food he was giving out, would that meant that it would have been served at the party? But Natsu didn't smell anything from the food passing us by— only the one he brought… to us specifically.

Why offer us something that wasn't going to be served?

Unless, he knew we would go away from the offer!

"Natsu, I think they were trying to get us away!"

"Huh?"

"Something's been bothering me ever since Lucy said something about the Salamander used."

"Luigi?"

"No, Natsu, Lucy. The pretty blonde girl who gave us lunch?"

"Oh yeah! Wait, what about it?"

"I have a feeling that Salamander isn't even a quarter charming as the ring he's abusing. And if I'm imagining the worse, there are people in danger. If I'm wrong, I might be just making a fool of myself."

Natsu seemed silent for a second as he folded his arms.

"They're not going to tell me where they got the name, are they?" I blinked in surprise at what Natsu said.

But I shook my head, "He might keep his word and ask Salamander where he got his name from, but I think he was trying to make sure we weren't anywhere near the boat. If anything, I think he came to us not because we were causing trouble, but because I think… he noticed we were attracting too much attention."

"So what? Do we go in there and kick their assess?"

"Under what charge? We can't prove their lying if they even are. But…"

"But?" Natsu and Happy tilted their heads.

If I'm wrong, I'm making a fool out of myself for nothing. But If I'm right and I do nothing, innocent people will get hurt.

However, I can't do anything if…

"Ugh! We need to get into the boat somehow! There's just so much bothering me but we can't do much unless we get into that boat before it sails off!"

"Hmm… oh! Hey, I have an idea!" Natsu spoke up as I quickly turned to him.

Instead of explaining, he pointed to something behind me. As I turned around, my eyes widened at the implications.

"We still have the money the Juter village gave us!" Natsu happily said.

It was insane! It was stupid! It was crazy!

And it might actually be enough to work.

I sighed and turned back to Natsu. "You are so lucky that I too would be desperate to find a way back to my dad."

  
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"Ah, Fero! Have some lobster my man!" Salamander cried out as he was fed a luxurious meal.

"Bora," The purple haired mage flinched as he heard the sound of the Captain's voice lower. "The attraction ring works best on females without any exposure with magic. Yet it has come to my attention that you've invited someone who wishes to join Fairy Tail, in other words: a mage? You are aware that even a two bit mage can resist its power?"

"D-Don't sweat it all, Fero! I totally got this!" He couldn't stop the sweat from falling down his cheeks nor could he stop the need to pull his already loosened and opened collar. It wasn't hard to be afraid of someone whose magic they were so aware of.

"Do you realize two young men were looking for you? Ahh, excuse me, two young men and a talking cat?" He walked behind the mage sitting on the couch and slowly put his hands on Bora's shoulders.

"O-Oh them? They were just curious about me. There's nothing to worry abOUT!?" Bora squeaked when there was more pressure applied to his shoulders.

"Oh I'm sorry I should have warned you that I was going to start messaging you. You did seem tense." Fero lightly said as he did start actually messaging Bora. It felt good, but Bora couldn't truly feel at peace with it. "I know that I am simply here to chaperone you, but if I may make a suggestion? We might want to leave earlier than planned. One of those boys you met… he was far sharper than he looked."

"The pink haired brat?"

"The brown haired one."

"The plain kid?"

"Yes well, for a plain looking boy his eyes were wandering around dangerously close to things people should not have been paying attention to," Pero stopped message as he got back up and started walking. "Now I must go and make preparations to walk out. Please do enjoy the party."

Bora let loose a breath he didn't know he was holding. "If that guy's magic wasn't so creepy… bah! Time to find and see if that cute blonde is coming over!"

  
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"Mhhmmpp! Mppphfff!"

"Happy?" I do my best to ignore my laughing purse as I try to walk in a straight line. "Please, stop laughing, they might hear you."

"MPPPff!"

"I will zip up this purse, forcing you to suffocate." I managed to whisper, making the cat try and calm himself down.

"Oh my what a lovely place to be, isn't it, Kayla?!" I did my best to ignore my throbbing headache as I looked to Nats—I mean. Natalie while we walked towards the boat.

"Natalie, dear sister, I do believe we should be careful not to make a scene." I can feel Happy staring at me through the purse as we both continued to walk in dresses towards the boat.

"Hello, ladies~" One of the guards emphasized with special huskiness as he eyed me down and up. "Are you here for Salamander?"

"Why it was quite an honor to be invited by him, though I do believe I ain't worth much."

"Nonsense! Come right this way, ladies."

"OhOHOho!" Natalie fanned herself while laughing in a manner that was far too much.

The two guards seemed to blanch when looking at Natalie's direction. "Err, anyway, enjoy the ride ladies!"

I grabbed Natalie before we walked up the plank.

Before we made it up, Natsu turned to me in surprise. "How the heck are you so darn good at acting like a girl?"

"I took drama classes when I was in middle school and high school. I was a fan of theater, and a few times I dressed up as women for fun." Oh those were fun—awkward as heck—but fun.

Sigh, I really do miss home—focus, Kain. Stick to the plan: survey what doesn't feel right then get out of the boat.

The plan should be nice and simple— "Are you kidding me?!" I whispered harshly as Natsu suddenly looked sick. "We're still docked!"

"I-It's still swooshing around?!" Natsu cried out as I tried to help him find some form of stable ground.

"H-Hey, are you two alright?" Crud! The last thing we needed was to be catching attention.

I turned around quickly, trying my best to put up a front. "Oh dear me! I do apologize; I had forgotten my sister has what you would call a motion sickness."

"Oh that's so sad to hear," Huh? Why did that voice sound familiar? Wait, Lucy?! What's she doing here!? "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"It's L—" *ZIP!* I don't need you to give us away Happy! I had to zip that purse! Thankfully, Lucy didn't notice my act since I was sure to distract her with my other hand by waving it at her. "Why, I must thank you so much! You truly are nice!" I thought she wasn't coming here because of the attraction ring!?

"My name is Lucy, what's yours?" Wow she really doesn't recognize me or Natsu. That cloth shop owner and his crew really did a good job after all.

"Kayla Smith and this poor gal over here is my older sister, Natalie Smith." Crap! I had a feeling something would happen but not this! Calm down, Kain, you're probably overreacting. There's still a chance that this could all be some misunderstanding.

"Kayla Smith huh? A beautiful name for a beautiful lady such as yourself." Aaannnddd there's Salamander. Crud.

He opened a palm towards Natsu who didn't seem to notice. "I can have some of my men bring your poor sister to the medical bay, in the meantime though, why not come with us? I have a private room aboard…"

Hmm? Lucy is the one who seems surprised even though I should be the one confused.

"Oh but I can't leave her, she is my sister." I faked,

However, Salamander insisted "Don't worry, my lady, I'm sure she'll be treated with the finest care!"

Natsu on the other hand tried to struggle to move as he tried to support himself on a nearby railing. "I-I'm urgh!" And then he unleashed his lunch.

There was a splatter, and a shrill cry coming from below. "OH GOD WHAT IS THIS STUFF ON M—"

"Perhaps, I should take you up on that offer." I said quickly, trying to avoid the voices and grabbing Natsu off the railway.

"Here, Natalie, take this." I handed the purse with Happy before leading both Lucy and Salamander away.

"Uh miss? My room is the other way."

"Then we'll take a scenic route then." I respond without missing a beat.

"Oh I like the way you think." And of course I noticed the huskiness in his tone. Man, women do need to be treated better in all worlds.

Hopefully, Natsu will open the bag and let Happy out—did he just open and barf into it?!

"Is she going to be—"

I chose to ignore everything but moving everyone out of the way of that mess. "Let's all walk with more urgency shall we?"

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eventually, we did come into the room. Several times Salamander tried to talk with me, and it was hard to stick to character, but I did my best to care. And when he placed a few sexual innuendos in his talks, I pretended not to be interested or naïve. All the while, I noticed Lucy seemingly on edge. She seemed to be worrying over to me but glaring over at Salamander. Does he have leverage over her? Is that why she's here?

Slamander's voice cut me out of my thoughts. "So tell me about yourself, Kayla, you've got a unique accent. Where are you from?"

"Actually, may I ask something first?" It was the first question I posed after listening to this man lie about some missions he had here and there.

"What is it, little flower?"

Ignoring the undertone, I asked what Natsu had been looking for. "Where did you get the name Salamander?"

"Hmm?" Even Lucy seemed surprised by that.

"Why, it's because I'm a famous mage of course."

"Well yes, but why a Salamander? Would not being called a dragon be more threatening than a lizard? If that's what people called me, I would not like being compared to that of a lizard, and I would have tried to be known as something else. Unless, did you hear that name elsewhere before taking it?"

Finally silence hit the room, but I was unsure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Hahaha! You are very curious, Ms. Smith," The purple haired mage laughed before calming down. "I'm not a fan of those types, but I can respect them. You see, I had heard of that name when I visited Sun Village, the home for Giants."

This one… this adventure sounded actually genuine. The Sun Village? Home for giants?

"Some giants explained that powerful fire dragons were called Salamanders, so I can understand why some uneducated people may not now, but to magical beings, a Salamander is the same as a great fire dragon, so I took the name."

"I see…" I stood up. I haven't seen much wrong, so I suppose I was just imagining the worst after all. Time to leave with Natsu. "Excuse me, but I believe I need to see my sister now."

"Ah wait!" I was stopped as Salamander physically blocked my path towards the door. Not a good sign. "All that time, and you must be thirsty! Here, have a drink." There was a fruit punch in the middle of the room someone had brought in earlier. Instead of getting a glass, some water droplets started floating towards me.

Yet while that drink was there the whole time… Salamander himself never drank from it.

That screamed suspicious. But it would be wise not to alert to him that I know what he's trying to do. I should probably just politely decline.

"That's enough!" Lucy cried out, swiping away the bubbles from me. So much for playing the subtle game.

"You've been trying to get me and this girl to sleep this entire time! It's one of your other rings, isn't it!" Huh? Sleep ring? I didn't feel sleepy at all. Weird. Lucy pointed at Salamander. "I don't care if you are from Fairy Tail, this behavior is unacceptable!" Wait what? This guy isn't from Fairy Tail.

"Oh really?" Salamander smiled in a manner that I recognized all too well on Saturday morning cartoon villains. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the curtains all held a bunch of goons holding some of the other women in the party.

I didn't spot Natsu among them though…

Well that was one potentially good thing among this horribly descending situation.

"Something's been off this entire time." He started speaking as I backed off. Lucy quickly stood in front of me as if she was trying to protect me, but we were surrounded. "The blonde, I could understand, she knew about the attraction affects so it didn't affect her much. But you?"

He looked to me questioningly. "You showed no real signs of infatuation. Even Blondie here fell for it a few times. Wait… are you…"

D-Did he see through my disguise!?

"Are you interested in girls!?"

… What?

"I mean," Why was Salamander blushing!? "Thinking about it, this place is full of beautiful women, I guess it wasn't that farfetched to have someone here who swung that way…" he looked back at me and shook his head. "It-It's not like I'm saying that's a bad thing! I had an uncle who liked men and he's living happily with his husband!"

Oh my god.

Okay, why was Lucy slowly turning to me with a flushed face. "A-Are you into girls?"

…

Without hesitating I pulled the wig out of my head, shocking everyone in the room.

"WWWWHHHHAAAATTTT!?"

"I'm a straight male, so yes, I am into girls." I deadpanned my most deadpan deadpan.

"Wait a second!" Lucy pointed to me with realization showing on her face. "Kain!?"

"Sup? Could we take two steps this way please?" I said as I grabbed her arm and slowly started to take a few steps back.

Good angle. If I can pull this off subtly…

"W-What are you doing here!? How did you get here?! Why were you cross dressing!?"

I turned back to Lucy after she asked all those questions. "All lovely questions, but here's another one: are you ready to run?"

"Huh?"

It was such a good thing I was wearing my sneakers underneath this long dress. In one instant, I grabbed the bowl of punch, which I was assuming was a drinking agent that was the same as the one that put all the other girls to sleep, and threw it right into the surprised and shocked Salamander's face who still was trying to process the fact I was a guy. Maybe if he was prepared he would have avoided or used magic to protect himself, but the fact he was still stunned at my disguise—or the fact that he found himself attracted to me must have thrown him off his game completely.

"Bora!" Some of the men cried before I grabbed Lucy and rushed for the door, then slamming it behind us and running for our lives.

"What the hell are you doing here dressed like that!?" Lucy yelled at me with her face… wow that looked bigger than usual.

"That is a funny story I can totally tell you more about after we find Natsu and a way off this damn boat!" Oi vey, running with a dress is hard, I have to lift it up and stuff.

"Natsu is here too—Natalie? Oh how did I not see it! I really didn't recognize you!"

"It's called acting," I said as we ran, "and the reason why you didn't recognize Natsu was because you haven't seen how bad his motion sickness is. Poor guy didn't even need to act like a different person."

To my surprise, I spotted Natsu at the very front of the ship. He was hung over the rail like drape.

"Natsu! Change of plans, everything is falling apart! Where's Happy—" Why are there ropes on him?

"After hearing a poor lady with severe motion sickness aboard, I came to help in any way shape or form," Oh no, not him. He actually seemed decently competent compared to Salamander.

Oh crud, it's the Captain. And why does he have Happy tied up in a fishing rod!?

"Imagine my surprise to see a girl with a familiar blue cat covered in upchuck?" He continued as realization hit my face. "With the cat here, I put two and two together and realized my feeling about you two was correct: you were all trouble."

"Release Happy this instant!" I cried out even though I had no power at all in this situation. I spotted the men catching up to us, only for all of them to stop and leave the entire deck to watch us.

It was like they were trying to be safe from this guy!

"Are you with Bora!?" Lucy asked after my demand that in hindsight he would agree to due to his leverage over us.

"He is a client of ours, so yes I am here to chaperone him since he is a source of potential income.

Income?

My eyes widened. "Holy shit, you're human trafficking?!"

The captain said nothing as the fishing rod started unwinding and placing Happy right behind him. "Jewels are jewels, blood on them or not."

As soon as he said this, a cloud started traveling over us, making the night far darker than it should have. The only thing I could clearly see was Lucy's blonde hair.

"You heartless monster!" Lucy screamed with anger suddenly, she took out something from the back of her dress, revealing a whip and holding out keys at the side of her hand.

"Monster? I suppose it wouldn't be untrue to say that." For some reason he started unfurling his fishing rod—oh shit. That's a magic fishing rod with how those strings are flying around him, isn't it? Still, if Lucy really is a mage, she should have the obvious advantage… right?

Fero sighed at the same time the cloud started passing by.

However, I realized we were beyond screwed now.

Why? Because all around us, reflecting moonlight and revealing what was not seen in the darkness... was string.

Magic string.

So not only are we trapped in a boat with both Natsu and Happy out of the way, but now we were surrounded by enemy magic that would more than likely turn us into sliced ham.

This bloody world is trying to kill me.

Fero reached the air, holding several pieces of string… **then he pulled **.****

"Duck!" Lucy said even after my own body screamed at me to do so, even though I practically kissed the wood, I felt the air where we used to be cut by string. I looked back up, seeing Fero expertly trail his hands along the string.

I panicked when I saw him pull the string and rod in different directions. I jumped then heard the wooden floor slashed into pieces.

Oh yeah, magic string that can cut wood with ease. That makes sense.

There was a shine in Lucy's keys as she held one out.

"Open, Gate of Cancer!" She cried out as a puff of smoke appeared, revealing a guy with crab legs on his back and… a barber? The heck?

"Giant Crab!" Happy managed to scream out with… is he that hungry?! And why is he so dependent on the guy saying crab at the end of his sentences?

"Ms. Lucy, do you wish for me to cut your hair—shrimp?"

"Oh I'm disappointed." Happy, you're trapped by strings that can cut you like butter; shouldn't you care more about that?

Lucy ordered her scissor wearing-thing to cut the wires, even the one on Natsu. Quickly, I went behind to check on the guy.

"Hey man, how's it going?" I'm going to assume his moans say he wants to leave now. "Well, I'm working on it. Can Happy carry three people?" And of course he shakes his head to say no, because that would be too easy if it was.

"Hmm, a gold key? I see you are a Celestial Mage with some rare spirits. But I must ask you fairly, miss. Do you believe yourself to be the only one who was smart enough to cut my strings?"

Aww shit! I looked down and quickly jumped just before the strings could clamp down on just above my ankles.

"Cancer—AAH!?"

After I landed, I noticed that for both Lucy and her Spirit: both of them had string wrapping around their ankles. Cancer tried to move, but suddenly the strings around him tightened. Lucy acted quickly and returned the scissors barber guy back from where he came from. However, as the blonde tried to get another key, a string wacked her hand throwing the keys from her person and to the floor in an unreachable spot.

"Make any more moves, and I will cut your ankles and let you bleed to death." Fero said coldly before his eyes turned to me.

"You, brown haired boy," The captain glanced over to me. "You don't have magic, don't you?"

"…What makes you say that?" I sling Natsu's arm over my shoulder, even though I have a feeling I know what's going to happen.

"Because the only reason why I haven't killed your friends yet was that I intended to use them as bait in case your magic happened to be a counter to mine. But since you're a non-magic user, there is nothing stopping me from killing all three—four of you." He quickly corrected.

But come on brain, think! Think! He's about to turn us into pieces! What can we do!?

"Wait!" I screamed out. Come on brain work some magic!

{ _"Happy, is Natsu really that motion sick?" I mean I've seen people get queasy, but to Natsu it's like Kryptonite that is sapping all of his energy like it would to Super Man._

_"Aye! He can't handle vehicles at all!" Happy jubilantly answered me as we took the train ride.}_

Oh come on, that was the best you could come up with it?! 

"I just have one question for you!" 

Fero narrowed his eyes while the back of my mind was screaming at me to come up with a better idea than the one I just came up with. "I believe it to be in my best interest to kill y—" 

And that was my cue to choose the lesser insane evil. "Can someone get sea-sick by swimming in the water?" 

"Wha?" 

"What?" 

"Huh?" 

Well desperate times call for desperate measures! I turned with Natsu, jumping high and tossing his body weight over with my own… 

AND STARTED FALLING! 

"GERONIMO!" I yelled out as gravity started pulling us. 

"Kain, what the hell, man!?" 

Natsu finally yelled just before we dipped into the water—and dear god it hurt like hell even though I knew I had to dive to lessen the impact! Thankfully, my parents thought me how to swim while Natsu himself started swimming up with me. 

"What was that for, Kain!?" Natsu cried out. 

"It was the only thing I could think off Natsu! You don't get motion sickness in the sea!" 

The pink haired mage blinked before he realized he was back to his normal self. "Oh right! I'm better now! Whoo!" 

I looked back up. "If you believe yourself to be free, you're sorely mistaken!" And Fero looked at me as he launched his fishing rod—oh right. 

However, I heard steam as I looked beside me to see… the area around Natsu was boiling? 

"Oi, white suit! You're going to pay for what you did to Happy!" 

Fero's string stopped as he looked down and shouted back, "You mean the cat I had the decency to clean after your little episode?" 

Natsu turned to me, his bubbles boiling even more. "That was Kain's fault! I didn't know Happy was there!" 

"Did you not see him get in there when I told you we had to hide him!?" I yelled back. 

"Uh guys!? Still trapped up here!" Lucy's voice came out. 

Natsu turned his head back up. "Oh right! Don't worry, Luigi! We'll save you too!" 

"It's Lucy!" The girl shrieked back quickly. 

Fero's eyes sharpened. "Enough! My rod can also kill things in the sea, regardless of what magic you have, you're as good as—" 

During his little tidbit, I didn't notice Natsu inhaling deeply and taking his hands out near his face. 

Then the magic circle appeared. "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" He unleashed a powerful breath of fire right where Fero was standing. 

A few seconds later, Kain heard Lucy screaming something about a gate of Aquarius.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fero's instincts screamed to him that he had to jump out of the way of the large burst of fire. 

"A fire mage!? One that powerful!?" He cried out before he realized the flames had caught on his string and burned his fishing line to the point that it loosened the restraints on his captives. 

"I'm free!" Happy cried out as he sprouted wings from his back. Lucy quickly capitalized this moment and grabbed her keys with a dive. 

She took her opportunity to summon another spirit, seeing as how the boat was on fire, her subconscious made her choose in key in particular to combat the fire spreading on the wooden boat. 

"Open, Gate of Aquarius!" 

In another flash of light, a beautiful blue haired mermaid appeared. Happy made a comment about another fish, but Lucy urgently pointed when she saw Fero recasting his weapon. 

"Aquarius, stop him!" 

"Tch! Stupid girl, you dare command me in the middle of my date!?" It took a second for Lucy to recall that this spirit was rather… uncooperative. 

The giant shadow that appeared behind her only solidified this fact.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Is that a tsunami?" Natsu asked as he noticed the giant wave of water towering over them and only growing in size. 

Kain, while afraid, was strangely zen at the sight of something that could easily kill him. "I was not expecting this today." 

And then the tsunami hit the boat and the two young men.

  
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Despite being tossed around like a ragdoll in a washing machine, somehow we made it back to land into Hargeon's beach. 

"Oh god, how am I still alive without any broken bones?" I checked again. Somehow, I was in one piece by something that by all means should have broken at least a bone or something. 

Am I more durable here? 

"Mrghpff!" I looked to my side to see Natsu somehow comically planted into the sand before pushing himself out and spitting out said sand. 

I heard more voices behind me, seeing both Happy and Lucy with some flying blue mermaid? Okay, I'm willing to admit that the Bubak, the crab/barber guy, and Happy are things that I'm sure as hell weren't expecting, but I'm starting to draw the line at how much I can process fictional things being real. 

Happy and Lucy winced when the mermaid snapped back at them—and she has a boyfriend? Oh that's funny, a mermaid has a love life and I don't. 

Wait, where's… 

"Hey, guys?" I stood up and noticed the crashed ship. "Where's Fero?" 

Out of the wreckage, Fero came out along with a group of bandits, along with the still sleeping Salamander. 

"C-Captain Fero!? What do we do!?" One of the mugs carrying Salamander—or Bora as I heard—asked the disheveled and drenched man in a suit. 

He glared at us, causing Natsu to get ready to fight— 

"We leave. That for sure would have attracted the royal guards." Fero spoke up before looking over. "Leave the girls they'll only be dead weight to us. And you four?" 

He looked over to us, making everyone but Natsu tense. 

"I do hope we don't meet again." With that he swung his fishing rod, making debris of the ship to fall in front of them and hide their path. 

It was then that alarms rang over the town, causing Natsu to drop his stance and look on with panic. "Oh crap! Royal guards! We gotta go!" 

"Aye!"Happy cried out before he and Natsu started running. 

"Hey!" I called out to Lucy. "You coming?" 

"Huh? Why?" 

"Cause, Natsu and Happy are from Fairy Tail, not that liar!" I motioned my thumb at the two making a break for it. 

__

"W-What!? Really!?" 

__

"Yeah. Come on, I'm sure you'll fit right in!" I managed to say before running right after those two. 

After a few seconds, I noticed Lucy running after us as well. 

Hopefully after this fiasco, we can finally head to Fairy Tail. And I can find some way to get back home. 

Huh. 

Wait one second. 

Was this how the first chapter was supposed to go?

  
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"Bora, wake up. Wake up." 

The purple haired mage gasped as he shot up from a bed. "F-Fero! W-Where are we?" 

"Heading towards Kakanarin albeit it's a little longer route than the one we planned. I've taken the liberties to report what had happened." 

The fake Salamander started to sweat. "O-Oh? I-I see." Fero warned Bora several times he was taking things not serious enough and now this happened?! He couldn't stop his imagination from thinking of the worse. 

"Bora, you can calm down," Fero's usually calm voice had the opposite effect on the faker. "We were strict, but we are not going to kill you for failing horribly. We're not people who are mindlessly evil even though we do things that are officially and actively against the law." 

He could hear his heartbeat slow down to an acceptable pace. "R-Really? F-For a second there I thought I was a goner." 

"No, Mr. Ryan Peloth is far more merciful than he seems. However, he will force you to make amends for losses." 

And then his heartbeat quickened again. "W-Wha… how will he do that?" 

"This is the second time I will calm you down. I can understand he seems scary, but at times he can be surprisingly merciful. He's not some monster," Bora sighed in relief. "He'll probably send you to do kidnapping missions though." 

"Kidnapping Missions?" 

"Yes, for some reason, Mr. Peloth does love those types of missions in particular for his own mysterious reasons." He took out a picture that was slightly wet, but showed a beautiful woman with black hair accompanied by a flying chick. "For example: I was asked to find this person after this mission: Éclair, a four hundred year old immortal from the ancestral city of Veronica." 

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Omake: Fashion for Action! 

Natsu dragged Kain into the clothes store quickly. "Yo! Is anyone here!?" 

"Welcome!~" To Kain's surprise, a rather flamboyant, and round man jumped out of some curtains in a ballet jump. He landed gracefully for someone his size and twirled beautifully. "How may I help you, dear customer?" 

Natsu then patted his hands on Kain's shoulders and said, "I want you to make a dress for my younger brother here!" Before the owner and Kain could question that for different reasons, the fire dragon slayer continued, "You see, it's always been his dream to cross dress but he's been too afraid to admit his passions!" 

Kain and the owner gaped. For different reasons. 

"Kyyyaaaa! How beautiful! Don't worry young man! The world of cross-dressing is a beautiful place that will bring you to heights unimagined!" The owner clapped his hands, revealing several other fashionable men speeding out of the back room. "Men, it's time to bring this man into the fold!" 

Kain opened his mouth… trying to find anything he could do to talk out of this madness, but instead his mind made him see what they needed to do, so instead he then sighed and resigned to his fate. "Is there a possibility for me to wear a wig? I've always wondered what it would be like to have purple hair if that could work. Or about contacts? I like my eyes, but brown is kind of plain." 

It was the time for Natsu and the Owner (and Happy to pause.) The Owner's smile only grew. "Y-you're going to go far… men~!" 

The men grabbed Kain's arms and started leading him towards the back room with or without his consent. 

However, both Fairy Tail members noticed the dark and silent glare on Kain's face before he left with them. 

A little later, the dragon slayer and the exceed noticed the curtains come up and out revealed a rather beautiful young woman with purple hair and yellow colored irises. 

However, Natsu and Happy's response was to… 

"AHAHAHAHA! It looks so good on you, Kain!" The pink haired mage laughed so hard he was starting to cry. 

"You're so skinny that you could make it work!" The blue cat cried out between the howling fits of giggles. 

However, instead of embarrassed, Natsu and Happy slowly realized that Kain wasn't embarrassed in the slightest. In fact he was smiling evilly? 

"Oh, dear brother," thier stomach dropped as they heard Kain speaking in a southern accent that was pitched enough to sound like a girl, but not as shrill or squeaky. "I wish to go out, but I'm too terrified to go out on my lonesome! Which is why I wish from the bottom of my heart, dear brother, that you could join me so I feel less alone?" 

"Don't worry about it! Of course your older brother would do this for you!" The owner proudly said as all men now looked to Natsu like predators. 

"W-What?" Natsu started to sweat as the men slowly stalked to him. 

The last thing he saw before the men were upon him was Kain mouthing out the words, 'Take that you bastard.' 

Natsu learned to never mess with Kain again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support so far. I'm not used to the format here, but I'm getting there. If anyone could give me a tip on how to make a line break here, I would very much appreciate it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boy from another world arrives in Fairy Tail at last... and it's totally meh. The place looks completely normal despite the colorful people that live inside it. Kain really doesn't see what the big deal was about this place from all of his friends descriptions. But since Kain doesn't have any magic, he offers to work a much more mundane part in Fairy Tail. That doesn't stop Natsu from inviting him and Lucy towards their first quest about burning a book though.

"Wow," I agree with Lucy. I've never seen a guild before. It looks cool. "It's so huge!"

That's what she said. Oh wait. Dang it, I didn't mean for that to sound like an innuendo!

After running away from the authorities—it's a good thing I'm already in college or else that might have been a blotch on my permanent record— and a few more days of travel, Natsu and Happy finally brought us to the famed Fairy Tail Guild. It was great to finally see the place up close, but since I had only heard about this series from bits and pieces from my friends I didn't know what to expect.

Surprisingly, it looked really normal. I guess since my main reference for magical worlds are Hogwarts, I was a little disappointed I didn't see talking goblins and animated inanimate objects.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Happy jumped for joy as he and Natsu opened the doors.

Inside the place, there were many people around the guild of varying shapes, sizes, and color. Yet despite some 'anime' looking people, it really looked like a large bar.

However, I was so engrossed with taking the sights, I didn't realize that Natsu had started to fight with someone. Somehow, when I missed that, I was utterly surprised when things escalated quickly, dragging nearly everyone in the guild into a brawl.

Lucy and I shared a look before we took a few steps away from the ragging fight. Now that I think of it, I think this was one of the things my friends who liked the series enjoyed about how boisterous and lively Fairy Tail was. While I admit it could look fun, it must be such a pain after every fight.

"Oh is Natsu back!? It's payback for our last fight!" Screamed a man only in his boxers.

"Gray, your clothes," A woman with brown hair mentioned, making the pervert scream at the loss he didn't notice before. "How undignified…" She said as she proceeded to drink from a barrel full of what I assume would be alcohol.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one who questioned what was going on before me as Lucy let out a confused sound. "Huh?"

Soon things got even stranger as a large man with white hair followed by a pretty boy followed by girls joined the ever increasing fray.

"Oh my? Newcomers?" As I turned around, I saw a rather beautiful woman with a calm and serene smile meeting both Lucy and I.

"M-Mirajane!" Lucy cried out to the girl. Before looking nervously back to the fight. She asked Mira if there was something they could do to stop this fight.

However, I noticed something in the fight and someone walking in a certain angle. I side stepped the large 'Manly' screaming guy as his body flew and hit Mirajane.

Quickly, Lucy and I went over to the currently pinned down woman who still was smiling despite being crushed by someone clearly twice her weight.

"Are you alright?" I asked while Lucy panicked at the sight.

"I-I'm fine. B-But isn't this fun?" She said as she lost conscious…. Huh? Is that her soul I'm seeing? I can see souls in this world? Ugh, fine, I'll put that in the list of things I'm probably never going to get used to.

I looked back to see anything that might be flying in this direction. My suspicions were confirmed before I stepped away again, but as I started moving, my mind told me that I had forgotten to warn Lucy. I was too late to warn the Celestial Mage before the same thing happened to her.

And now the boxer man was fully naked and in front of a very distressed Lucy. Even though, she was yelling, the naked man didn't actually seemed bothered as he quickly asked, "Excuse me miss, could I borrow your under—"

"AS IF!" Lucy pretty much had every right to do that. But why ask the opposite gender so easily?

Still, he did ask for help, so after I spotted Lucy whisked away by that pretty boy I spotted a while I go, I went up to the naked man and gave him my hoodie. "Here, you can use this, but please wash it before you return it." As the bible always said, clothe the homeless. That does apply here right? Or in another universe, is there no god?

Which would mean I'm doing this for nothing…

Okay, another note to make when things settle down…

The black haired man stood up and tied my favorite hoodie around his… well yeah. "Oh thanks man! I'll be sure to clean it after!"

Bah, it really doesn't bother me as much as it should. "Just be sure to get your boxers back first so you could clean it easier."

"Ah right!" Then he looked back at Natsu with a glare. "You'll pay for that you bastard!" He shouted before pretty much tackling the guy without any hesitation.

I started to look around where the fighting had become much more violent. I honestly don't know how to feel about all this. Perhaps other fans might like and enjoy this environment, but I've always been the bookish type and I rather enjoyed my relative peace and quiet.

Yet my thoughts were put aside when I noticed that some of the mages were now starting to use magic.

"Ara, ara. It seems like they're all going a bit far…" I heard Mirajane say after she somehow got back up without me noticing.

It was then a loud voice echoed through the guild as a giant man towered over everyone trying to use magic in their brawl. Huh, I wonder why I never noticed that giant man in the first place?

I spotted Natsu—getting crushed as he was about to declare his victory. Despite Lucy's yelp, I was fairly certain that this happens to him often. And I don't even read this story!

"SHUT UP!" cried the giant before glancing towards Lucy and my direction. "Hmm? Newcomers?"

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir." I waved, making Lucy stare at me weirdly—wait why? Did I have something on me?

Soon, the giant started… shrinking? Oh, so that was why I didn't see him earlier. He wasn't a giant, he was a midget with giant magic or something. Ha. I see what was done there.

"Oh? It's nice to meet you two. It is good to finally someone with manners come through this door though."

Manners? He hasn't seen someone with mann—

… {*Remembers everyone in this guild within the past few seconds*}

Oh.

The guild leader jumped with a great flip then hit the rail of the second floor. After struggling to get back up, he started complaining about the many character flaws that were obvious from the get go.

However, he started a rather nice and heartwarming speech afterward. With that done, everything seemed to become relatively calmed down.

Still, I couldn't help but feel strange about all this. The place seems great, but I had this bad feeling in my stomach about being here. Was it because I was from another world that I had this sense of not being here?

"Yo!" I was distracted from my thoughts and turned back to see Gray hand me back my hoodie. "Thanks again for the clothes!"

"You do remember me asking you wash this first right?" I asked as I raised my brow at the jacket.

"Oh don't worry. I got it off a few seconds later when I snatched my briefs back. Thanks, I owe ya one."

I still wanted it washed, but meh. Water under the bridge. "No problem dude."

I'll just ask if there's a washing machine… or magic washer somewhere here.

"W-Why would you give your clothes to him? Like that!" Lucy asked me in shock as she stepped away from my hoodie in particular.

"He asked for help. Wouldn't you liked to be helped if you asked for help?"

Lucy flushed at how simple it sounded. "B-But doesn't that weird you out?"

It was an honest enough question. However, the way she phrased it made me think of a single line I've heard so many times in my life that I absolutely loathed.

{Don't be selfish, Kain!}

Godammit, why did I have to remember those words?

Thankfully, it seemed like I didn't visibly react even after recalling those painful memories and spoke up. "I know what you mean, but I find a lot of things don't really bother me. I mean they do, but I never put effort into showing them. I get tired easily."

Our attention was caught by Mirajane as she motioned for the two of us. "Anyway, would you two like to join the guild?"

"Yes!"

"Actually, I have a question. Can I talk to your guild master?" The two girls looked over to me with confusion. "There's something I would like to ask him first."

"I heard it." The tiny old man jumped from the rail and back down in front of us. "What is it, sonny?"

"Do you really have to be a mage to work here in Fairy Tail?" I asked.

He seemed a little surprise at my question as he sized me up. "You don't have any magic, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Well, you can't be an official member of this guild, but you can work the bar and tables. It would be nice to give Mirajane a hand at handling the guild. And we could always use more cleaners…" He sighed.

Huh. "So, I can still work here? But just not as a guild member?" I guess that's the next best thing really. I haven't even thrown a punch in my life—which might change very soon.

He nodded. "Civilians can't be mages, maybe if they were trained as mercenaries, but other than that, I can see you're completely defenseless."

"T-That's not true!" I was surprised to see Lucy defend me. "Kain was amazing despite having no magic! We were able to get out of a sticky situation because of him!"

"Aye!~" Happy flew over this time. "He helped us in our mission in Juter, and that was a much harder mission than they described!"

The small man seemed amused by all of this. "Interesting, but even if it was true, it is still against the rules. You can start cleaning the mess everyone made."

Just then we heard of another table breaking in the distance.

"My bad!" Yelled Natsu.

"Okay, I can do that." I spoke up before something came to my mind. "Excuse me, I just realized. Those papers that were burned, those were official complaints right?"

Markarov seemed to blanch for a second before looking at me wearily. "Yeah? So?"

"Shouldn't that mean there are bills and suing cases against the guild for all those violations?" I saw him flinch in response to it.

"Don't remind me…" He dejectedly said as he put his head down.

Poor guy. "You know, I went to law school for the past three years. I could take a look at them for you. I've been reviewing legal cases for those three years, and I can more than likely cancel around fifty percent of those cases against—"

I was not expecting the man to appear right in front of me, hugging me tightly with stars in his eyes that looked close to tears.

"DO YOU MEAN THAT!?" he asked in half hysteria.

"Yes? Otherwise I slaved away in law school for nothing." I sighed before the hug of the smaller man suddenly became the strongest vice grip in existence.

"THEN YOU'RE HIRED AS FAIRY TAIL'S LAWYER! WAAAAHHHHHH!" Why was he crying!?

"Oh my! I've never seen master so happy before in my life!" Mira jubilantly explained.

W-Wait what? "Have you never hired a lawyer before?" I asked in shock as I looked to the man.

"No lawyer wants to represent us! You're the first one that does!" The old man cried out.

But why would—I was interrupted by the sound of one of the pillars cracking from the brawl. That answered my question.

"Umm then do you want me to do cleaning first, or see the papers?"

"Laki and Mirajane can handle the damages like they usually do! Just please, make their papers go away!" The poor man started sobbing on my shirt now.

Oh swell.

Mirajane gave me a kind smile. "Good luck. Oh, I never got your name."

"It's Kain Reynolds." And now I have to deal with legal work.

It seems I can't escape paper work even in another world.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Unbelievable, Natsu punched an injured little girl through a hospital wall on her birthday?!" Well it said she was possessed by an evil spirit but still, "Gray caused a wedding to crumble when he stumbled on a church buck naked! Elfman, punched a man for raising his pinky for a drink? Cana threw a fit when someone ran out of booze, and by fit, she decimated as much as Natsu! And those were just the tip of the ice berg!" I couldn't believe it.

All these cases. If not for these magic reading glasses Makarov lent me, It would have taken me years to read this all.

Speaking of the old guild master…. "Would you like to hear the good news or the bad news?" I turned to him as he flinched.

"I-I've heard so many bad news in my life, so start with that!"

"This is a lot worse than I imagined." No sooner than I said the words, Makarov slumped in shame.

"Now for the good news. It's a little underhanded, but I from all that I've read so far… I can remove 30% of the guild's debt in damages since some of these claims have no proper backing."

"3-30 percent!?" Makarov threw himself at my feet and started to cry again. "YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER!"

"Sir! Sir please, let go of my leg, you're crushing it!" He was surprisingly strong for someone his size.

"I-I'm sorry it's just—in a guild full of powerful wizards, no one has ever defeated our court filings! WAAAHHH!"

Ah yes, the weakness of even great men: money. I placed the glasses back on. "Alright, I'll start reviewing these cases again and soon I should be able to look up the ones that I can solve."

That had taken me hours to finish. It was a headache, but I was glad that I got to do something mundane again after these past few days.

As soon as I left the office, I noticed that it was already night. I was in Makarov's office the whole day.

"Ahh! Hello, Kain. A nice evening we're having?" I looked over to see Mirajane at the sink washing dishes.

"Oh, let me help with that. I was supposed to help you before I told the guild master about my law school." I quickly went up and started washing some of the dishes she hadn't started on yet.

"Thank you for that." She was a lot more relaxed now. Maybe it was because almost everyone went home and there was barely anyone left in the guild.

"No problem. But it's really weird to see this place like a ghost town compared to this morning." I noticed that the guild hall just felt… empty without anyone here.

"Yes, it's very different when the guild is open." You know, now that I take a look at her… I get this feeling she isn't really all there. "You should have seen awhile ago, Natsu and Lucy had already went out to save a friend of ours."

Man, Natsu really has trouble find him wherever he goes huh? I guess that could be said for most hero types like him.

"Then, when he came back, he started talking about Lucy and you. We were all surprised to hear about Juter, but we were more surprised to hear that Natsu said you came from another world… and even more amazingly that we were all part of his fictional story?"

I couldn't help but smile. "It's hard to believe that, huh?"

"Yes, but it seemed like Lucy had a hard time not believing it. Master also says that nothing in this world is truly impossible." She then laughed as she recalled. "The part about you being from another world I mean, the one about Natsu being the main character was impossible to believe."

"I said he was famous, not that he was the main character. I'm going to have to set the record straight tomorrow, don't I?" Mirajane laughed again as she nodded at the thought. However, I also wondered something very important. "What else did he say while I was in the guild master's office?"

"We didn't mean to talk behind your back, in fact Natsu said a lot of great things about you and Happy showed us your balloon animal for him—it was so cute~" Mirajane giggled.

"I'm glad you liked it. I can make more for the guild if I can get my hands on more specialized balloons like that."

"That would be nice." She thought about it before her work on the dishes slowed down. "Natsu also told us that you joined us because you thought we were your best shot at going home."

Oh. That. I told Natsu about it. "Yeah. Sorry for putting that much pressure on you guys. None of you probably know a way that can travel to different worlds without magic."

"That's true, but Master said we would help you."

I blinked in surprise as I looked at the older woman. "R-Really? Why?"

"Natsu said you help save lives when you didn't need to. How could we say no to someone that even our resident dragon slayer vouches personally for?"

I didn't notice I was giving a genuine smile. "Thank you. This means a lot to me even if some of you don't really believe me."

"Everyone is welcome to Fairy Tail; we all have our past demons here." She spoke softly in that last part, but because of how empty the guild was, I could hear her.

…

…

"So," I clear my throat. "Where am I staying?"

"For the night, you can stay in one of the guest rooms."

Uh yeesh, I haven't even thought about moving out of the house yet, now I'm going to have to find one. That's another thing I have to put on the "to do" list.

"Thanks." It was then, something pique my curiosity. "By the way, what type of music do they have here?"

"Oh? What type of music do they have in your world?"

That was how the rest of the night went, doing chores and talking about strangely mundane things.

I eventually got to the guest room thanks to Mira's help. There, it was a simple bed, lamp, desk, and window.

There were a few magazines on the desk though; some about Entrepreneur Weekly… huh? Jude Heartfillia? Is he related to Lucy? Bah, I'll keep reading it.

After reading a few more magazines, unsurprisingly, I slept peacefully that night for the first time I came there.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yo, Kain!" After morning sweeping, I spotted Natsu and Happy coming up to me. "Let's go to Lucy's place for a mission!"

His call to me surprised me on several levels.

"A mission? I half expected you to go head towards Sun Village after I told you where Bora got the name from."

Natsu's energy deflated as he crossed his arms. "I want to, but we're low on jewels. I still need money to get things done and there's no job anywhere near that place."

Oh that makes sense. "But are you sure I can come with you? I'm not a guild member, just a worker."

Natsu looked over to Mirajane. "Yo, Mira! Can I take Kain with me?"

My boss/manager looked over with a smile. "There's nothing saying he can't come with you."

"Awesome!" Natsu pretty much took that as a yes. "Come on, Kain! We've got you and Luigi's first official mission to do!"

"Lucy, Natsu. It's Lu-cy." But I was ignored again as somehow Natsu had found out where she had started up rent and went into her room through her window.

Telling Natsu and Happy I was taking the long way, I walked towards Lucy's apartment door and was about to knock, when I heard her scream about her room and kick something in to the wall that sounded like two buffoons.

Then I knocked.

"Who is it?"

"Me, Kain. Natsu brought me along."

"Why didn't you try to stop these two!?" Lucy cried out from behind the door.

However, I blinked in response to that. "I was supposed to stop them?" How could I even do so in the first place? "Could you do that if you were in my place? And if so, how?"

I didn't hear much from Lucy but after a while, she let me in.

Her room was nice. I mean really, really nice. Was there a type of storage magic she had to keep all of this, and if so, where would I get it?

Anyway, after Lucy showed us how Celestial Spirits work, Natsu finally decided to show us his mission he chose for us.

Stealing a book.

… Do libraries not exist or something?

Oh wait, my bad. According to the description, it's a rare book. That makes more sense and apparently it also includes a job description of the target's…

Oh.

This was why we went to Lucy.

So Natsu can be clever when he wants to be.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucy stayed silent, even when we found a ride towards Shirotsume Town, our destination.

However, when the ride started moving…

"Are you feeling alright, master," She said with obvious sneer. Someone was still sore about being tricked by a simple-minded person. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"A-A barf bag would be nice…" Natsu said before I took one out.

"Here, I had a feeling we'd get into another one of these and the last thing I wanna repeat was the boat incident."

"That was your fault Kain!" Happy pointed at me, still a bit annoyed. Though in his case, no one wants to be barfed on by their best friend.

"I said I was sorry." Even though it wasn't fully my fault.

"No you didn't!" Happy cried before looking to Lucy, "And I'm supposed to be the master here!" Huh, it seemed like he took that seriously from a while ago.

"Shut it, cat!" The blonde celestial mage exclaimed. "By the way, why did you want me in your team?"

I stayed silent for a second. As Natsu described, closer mages in the guild form teams. Natsu went on to say simply that Lucy was nice but weird.

But I was surprised he asked me to come along. I'm not even a mage. "Wait, but why did you have me tag along? I don't have any magic. I don't even have the sticker from the guild."

"Oh you didn't get one?" Happy asked.

"Well don't you need to be a mage to have one?"

"You can still get one. I mean it's not wrong to say you're a part of the guild." Happy continued eating his fish.

I would like to have one of those stamps. "I'll talk to Mirajane about that one. But you still didn't answer my question."

"You're a smart guy. You made some awesome plans from before!" Natsu managed to say through his sickness.

"My plans… you mean how we just ran like hell, how we disguised ourselves as women, and how I made us jump overboard a boat to escape an assassin in order to give you your powers again?" Those are not what I would call planning.

"They worked didn't they?" The way Natsu says that is as if that is all it takes.

"To varying degrees." I heard Lucy whispering about how she almost got caught on Natsu's fire blast after I said that. "But alright, I hope I won't drag you guys down too much."

"Speaking off, I think it's time for our pay scale. Since I'm doing all the work, the split should be seventy, ten, ten, and ten." How generous of Lucy to say.

"You want only ten percent Lucy?"

"I'm the seventy!" The blonde girl shouted at Happy again.

I laughed a bit before looking again at the job flier. While this was kinda fun and exciting, something didn't feel right about this quest but I couldn't put my finger on it. The last time I had a wrong feeling, it turned out Bora was actually a human trafficking ring. Ugh, I hate this. If I actually read the story I could have prepared accordingly.

I don't even know if this is part of the story or not!

Despite my thoughts, we soon we arrived in our destination.

"Shirotsume Town." I read the sign as the four of us walked into the small bustling town.

"I'm starving," Natsu sluggishly moved as we walked into a group. He must still be feeling the effects of motion sickness.

"Can't you just eat your own flame?" Lucy asked curiously. Though, even I had a feeling that eating flame was more of an energy thing and not really substance like food did.

"Oh yeah and while we're at it, you eat Plue and that cow guy?" Cow guy? Is he referring to another spirit Lucy keeps around?

"Eww, no! Why would you say that?"

"Then it's the same thing."

Oh, I didn't know that.

Lucy seemed a bit bamboozled. "So you can eat fire, just no your own? Isn't that weird?"

"Lucy, you have the ability to summon three spirits from another dimension, we've met over a dozen quirky personalities on our first day of Fairy Tail, and last time I checked you were kidnapped by a Vulcan yesterday, but you think Natsu not eating his own flames is weird?"

"He's got a point, Lucy." Happy concurred with my statement before the girl seemed flustered.

"Seriously, I'm more surprised you're not reacting to any of this! Besides Mirajane, you're probably the closest normal guy I've seen and you claim you're from another world and we're all fictional characters!"

"I am reacting; I just don't give outward reactions. As for that last part: there is a possibility of all of us being imagined as fictional characters. Maybe I'm one too." Ha! As if I was some fictional character created by some loser.

It was then Natsu perked up and pointed to a restaurant. "Oh hey! Let's eat over there!"

Lucy on the other hand, started walking away from us. "Nah, it's alright. You three go ahead."

Natsu folded his arms when he saw her leave. "What's with her? We should be eating as a team."

"A good idea, Natsu," I speak up as I turn to him. "But I wanna do a little more research about our target, and nothing says information like rumors. I'm going to move around town a bit and ask what people know about the guy."

"Ahh man research? Are you for real?" Natsu seemed to be sad.

"There's no shame in gathering knowledge for what you're going to do. You two go on ahead, I'll meet you there soon." With a wave I too left them, this book stealing job sounds oddly suspicious, but I suppose for now I just have to know more about our target.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"D-Don't you…" I gasped hunched over and trying to support myself by my knees. "Think… we ran out there too quickly?"

After meeting with our client and learning only about how desperately he wants a book destroyed, Natsu ran out with Lucy and Happy before I could ask why he was so determined to see one specific book burned.

"You should exercise more." Happy noted with ease and a hint of superiority.

"I'll work on that. I promise… once I get a stable hold in Magnolia." I got back from my knees. "Okay, since we're doing this, you all should know about what I learned about the duke while we were still in Shirotsume town."

All three listened carefully.

"First off, he's far richer and more influential than he seems. His Mansion could double as a fort with how much security he's put up to keep people away even if they don't mean any harm. Next are the rumors of his personality. I heard from towns folks is that he's as egotistic as they come and it's not helped by the fact that he could ruin a person socially and economically without any effort because of all of his money."

Natsu seemed to glare somewhat. "I already hate this guy and I haven't met him yet."

Lucy looked back at me, looking unease. "Anything else?"

"Well there were other weird rumors I heard about the maids he hired…" The blonde girl put a hand in her chest. She was probably scared or worried about all of this. "Well from what I heard they're weird apparently."

"Weird how?" Lucy's body language obviously said she didn't like how that was said.

I shook my head. "They were all too vague. But what I wasn't told that caught my attention was that none of the rumors were described as good."

"Uuhhh that doesn't make me feel any better…" Lucy shivered at the thought.

"Hopefully, you'll only have to be there for a while. First, Natsu should sniff the area, if he has magic or machines hidden in the forest, would you be able to sniff them out?"

Natsu seemed to think about that for a second. "I can't really smell magic, but now that you mention it, magical items do have a distinct smell I could probably track."

I suppose that's the best we could pull off right now. "Keep your nose open for those. It might be the way he can figure out proximity alerts. Lucy, we'll try your maid thing and work from there."

Eventually, we did make our way there, hiding behind a tree, the three of us watched Lucy walk up… and after a rather interesting sight, get rejected.

"Just couldn't do it huh?" Natsu sighed disappointingly when Lucy returned only to sulk under a tree.

"I tried! That guy wouldn't know beauty if it bite him in the behind!" Lucy's tears were visibly falling as she said this.

"Uh-huh." Happy shallowly agreed.

"I actually respect that he can see the beauty in girls who society labels as ugly. It's kind of progressive if you think about it." I commented out loud, which didn't really help Lucy in comfort.

Natsu then smirked with a familiar and dangerous smile. "Okay, it's time for plan T!"

I had a feeling I knew what that meant. "I'm assuming you mean plan B and just assail the place with fists blazing?"

"Actually, it was called Plan T because we were supposed to take them by storm, but I like how you phrased it way better!"

"That jerk is going to pay for this!" Lucy seems all fired up. In all fairness, her ego's been wounded, so I guess that makes sense.

"Do you think we should do this in the day though?" I asked, making the three look at me strangely. "If we're going in one way or another, wouldn't it be better to attack when they're asleep?"

"No way, there's no fun like that!" Natsu said. It wasn't really a good reason, but I won't suggest something if he really doesn't want it. Still, storming head on isn't the best idea, so there should still be something else we could do.

Thankfully there was another one among us who started thinking. "Actually, I don't want to go to jail," Lucy spoke up. "We should just break in and burn the book ourselves."

"What? I wanna bust down the doors!"

It wasn't a bad idea honestly. "Lucy does have a point, Natsu. The Duke is still very influential. Whatever battle we might have with him might have backlashes through official and political scandals. If we get in there and get out without him noticing, it would be the best for everyone."

"Aww," The dragon slayer of fire obviously didn't like being outvoted.

I looked up to the Mansion and spoke up. "You three should go in. Try flying into the roof top through Happy."

"What about you?"

"Oh me?" I repeat with a smile as I take out my bag pack and start fishing for items Mirajane let me borrow. "I'm going to be a distraction to ensure you guys pull this off without the Duke noticing. But first: Lucy, do you have a clothe color changer on you? I learned a fun fact from my manager last night."

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I spotted Happy up in the air with Lucy, I walked up to the mansion and started bagging on the door. Checking to see if the color swapping magic was still on, I started yelling out.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Is anyone home?"

Again, the large pink haired maid came out of the ground because screw you doors and normal people….

"Yes? Who is it?"

I wave kindly, trying to appear professional and calm. "Hello, I'm Ronald Mcdonald from Entrepreneur Weekly, I'm here to possibly discuss with Duke Everlue about him being in the next cover for our next month issue." I say as I hold up one of the magazines I kept from the room. Who knew keeping just one of these things would help so much?

Suddenly, the ground behind me shot up as the Duke himself came back with stars in his eyes. "Entrepreneur Weekly is finally letting me be on the cover?!"

"After your letters, they've decided it was time. Would you like to get started on your interview?"

Even though I was just guessing he sent letters and assuming with how excited he sounded, it seemed like I was right on the money when the duke huffed with pride. "Of course! It was only a matter of time before you'd finally give in! Now I kind of regret planning to get back at your company… but come in! Come in! There is much I can't wait to tell you!"

Good, the rumors about him having a huge ego were right. I had a feeling someone like him would have demanded to be on a famous magazine. What better way to stroke someone's ego than to get them to talk about themselves?

"Feast your eyes on my magnificent home! The best of the absolute best!" Huh. That's a really large gold statue of himself. I actually like the detail they did on his tongue, I think I can see taste buds on it.

"Oh. That's a lovely sheen your statue is giving off, is it a special kind of wax?" Despite his obvious tastes, I know enough about home decorating and some gold to see this stuff really is fine quality.

He actually nodded in agreement to my question. "Sharp eyes, my friend! You see my beloved statue is coated with…" He went on, explaining everything in the living room. With him here, it should be easy for Lucy and Natsu to sneak in and get the book.

As he was talking, I spotted something from the corner of my eye. It was a door opening and I saw a trace of blond hair.

That must have meant that Lucy and Natsu were in and that the room they landed in wasn't the one we were looking for.

I took out a pen and a small notepad. "So let's start from the beginning, where were you born and what was your childhood like? Could you tell me that while we go to your courtyard? I'd love to see what you did with the place."

"Why! Of course! Of course! I'll have Virgo prepare us a snack while I regale you of a grand tale! Boyoyo!"

And so he began to tell me the story of Everlude as he walked ahead towards one of the hallways. I gave a wink towards the direction of where Lucy and Natsu were and followed after him.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I didn't know Kain was such a good actor. I would have flinched every time he talked about himself." The celestial mage admitted as she watched the two leave. "And I didn't know the color changing magic could make clothes look like other clothes…"

"See, I told ya Kain was smart!" Natsu cried out.

Happy raised a paw. "Aye! He's definitely more useful than Lucy!"

"Shut it, cat!" the blond quickly snapped. "Let's hurry up and find that book! I don't know how much time Kain can buy us."

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And after my dramatic battle with the King of Hurilium, I won my case! Boyoyo!"

"So brave!" "So handsome!" "So smart!" Everlue's maids showered praise to the man after his tall tale.

After writing down the story—yes I wrote notes on it. I had to be as realistic as possible and to be honest it wasn't that bad.

Even if I could tell most of it were lies.

I told Everlue a half lie in the form of sincere truth, "You should make a story out of your life. I bet it would sell by the millions."

Suddenly, my host seemed to stop in the middle of showing me his pool and he scowled. "I tried to, I even got the best writer money could buy, but that stubborn old man…" He sneered before looking back at me. "Ah, never mind that! Is there anything else?"

"Do you by any chance keep horses? I hear Equestrians really bring life to these types of places. Why, I once saw some in the Heartifilia mansion." I really should ask Lucy if she really is related to that guy, but that's a question for another day.

Before he could open his mouth to continue his tour, a voice came out towards us.

"Mr. Everlue. Pardon the intrusion, but I was looking for you."

I turned to see three intimidating men walk towards the duke.

One was an old man maybe around his late sixties or possibly older, but his hair was already aged grayish-white and he was dressed in a red suit. He had a broadsword sheathed on his side and he seemed to have a calm demeanor about him.

The two behind him had no such air.

One was a giant of a man with hair shaped like a starfish wearing a blue long sleeve and white pants. His presence screamed overwhelming power.

The one on the opposite side of the older swordsman was a shorter man in white and black Chinese based clothing. He was holding a giant pan for some reason.

"Ah, Master Zash and the Vanish brothers, how may I help you?" He turned to me. "These are my current bodyguards, here to ward me off any trouble."

Master Zash, the older looking man with a full but short face beard bowed politely to the man. "About that sir, it seems while on patrol, we had found one of your windows broken, I asked Virgo to check around before I came to you. I felt it was necessary to tell you this before we could handle it ourselves."

Duke Everlue fumed. "WHAT!? How did they get in!? And why didn't you try to hunt them down!?"

"Because sir," The old man calmly stated before looking towards me—aww shit. "They came the same time as him."

Everlue glanced over to me in shock. But even so I tried to remain calm. "Excuse me sir? I don't know wha—"

There was a slashing sound as I looked down… the colors spell that was hidden in my hoodie pocket was cut in half, revealing that I wasn't wearing a suit, but my same clothes I came into this world with.

"It appears he was a distraction. He's not really with Entrepreneur Weekly, sir." The old man… d-did he even take out the blade? It was like he… slashed my pocket with just his scabbard!

"WHAT!? You were lying to me!?" Everlue glared at me with furious rage.

The one I assumed to be Master Zash calmly told his two followers, "Yan, Ying. Please, tie up this young man and follow me back into the mansion. You also might want to hurry and help find the intruders, Duke Everlue."

"Yes, Master Zash!" They zealously repeated before they both got rope out of seemingly nowhere.

"Y-You guys wouldn't happen to take a joke, right?" Despite my nervous laughter, I really do hope that Natsu and the others are doing fine.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is horrible!" Lucy cried out as right after they had found the book, they were being confronted by none other than Duke Everlue himself.

"So you thieves are looking to pilfer the Daybreak from me, are you? Boyoyo!" The portly duke observed from the scene before him.

"See slowpoke?" Natsu looked to Lucy as he pointed to the small duke. "You were the one saying we shouldn't waste time!"

"Sorry about that."

The duke smiled darkly. "I had a feeling something was off when a maid and then a fake scout came here, but who would have thought it would be wizards trying to steal something. But I never would have guessed it was that stupid book, Daybreak."

"Stupid?" Natsu repeated with slight confusion.

Lucy had the same thoughts, but she wondered why something that was paid for to be rid of so desperately is unwanted by the same man who kept it?

"But this works out great! If you don't want it, I wanna keep it!"

"It's mine! Get your grubby hands off it!" Everlue threw a fit after Lucy excitedly asked.

"Greedy pig."

"Shut your trap, ugly." And with that casual retort, Lucy felt more damage in her life than she had ever before.

Natsu wanted to burn the book already to complete their job, find Kain, and get the heck out of there.

However, Lucy wanted to at least read it first. She even sat down on the ground to do so.

Everlue, sick of not being the center of attention, cried out, "How dare you put your hands on my possessions! Come forth, Vanish brothers!"

The three looked to one of the opening secret passages to see two men walking in followed by an old man and…

"Kain!" Natsu cried as they saw him tied up in rope.

The brown haired boy looked up and saw Lucy with a book. "I thought we were supposed to get rid of that?"

"Lucy is being Lucy!" Happy pointed to the girl like a child blaming his sibling for breaking the family vase.

"Wait, are you using my name as an insult!?" Lucy looked back up from the book to shout at the blue cat.

"Don't be such a Lucy, Lucy!" Happy fired back.

"Can you believe these mages? Thinking their hot stuff…." The younger and taller Vanish brother, Ying scoffed as he looked at his opponents.

Happy pointed over to their emblems. "Those guys are from the Southern Wolves Mercenary Guild!"

"Wait, there's more than one type of guild besides mages out there? How many are there?" Kain asked with confusion.

"That's an odd question: are you not from around here?" The older man answered the question with another question.

Natsu; however, pointed over to Kain. "You let our friend go, you bastards!"

Everlue played with his mustache like some kind of movie villain to Kain. "I'm afraid I'm not letting him or any of you get out alive! Boyoyo!"

"Isn't that a bit extreme, Mr. Everlue?" Even when tied up, Kain supposed he thought this was a bit much..

"Shut up, Ronald Mcdonald!" It seemed as if Everlue missed Kain's real name being heard somehow. "You don't get to talk anymore! Vanish brothers and Master Zash, finish them!"

However, at this moment, Lucy stood up. "Hey, Natsu, hold them off. I think there's a secret in this book."

"Huh? Okay." He asked as Lucy already went ahead away from the fight by using a different door.

Everlue started to wonder in surprise. There was something in the book he had missed after all this time? This unsettled him. Perhaps there was something in that book that he could use after all.

"You three take care of this. I'll go after the girl." Everlue darkly muttered as the floor beneath him lowered.

That action from the duke made Kain blink in surprise. "He's a mage?"

"Happy, go after Lucy." Natsu said as he cracked his knuckles, earning a curious stare from the old man holding Kain's rope.

"Are you sure?"

"I can handle these bozos!" Natsu said proudly before Happy ran off.

"Yan, did you hear this guy?" The bigger but younger bro asked in shock.

"I did, Ying. Looks like we have to teach this one a lesson." He then pushed a hand back. "Please Master Zash, allow us to take care of this one!"

However, the old man in question seemed to pause as he eyed Natsu up and down. "Hmm… young man, you are from Fairy Tail, right?" The old man asked, surprising Natsu.

"Yeah? What about it?"

At the confirmation, Zash gave a small laugh before smiling towards him. "How is Markarov these days?"

That surprised everyone in the room. This guy knew their guild master?

"You know, gramps!?" The pink haired man cried out in shock.

The old swordsman flushed as he scratched his nose. "Ahh, well…. I remember him. He defeated me in several occasions, all very humiliating, but humbling. I doubt he even recalls me. But if you do see him again, could you give him my thanks? I learned a lot from those after my younger days."

Natsu seemed to stare hard at the old man until he nodded. "Hmm, alright. You seem way nicer than these two."

"Sir! Please! He's just a mage!" Yan declared.

At the sound of that, Zash put a hand on his head as he sighed. "You two are skilled, but you're both making the same mistake I did where I believed myself to be the strongest," He paused for a second before giving a small smile. "You two alone must fight this mage. Under no circumstances are you to underestimate him. Am I clear?"

"Huh? We can handle this guy no problem, Master!" Ying cracked his fists in response to his master's challenge.

"I dunno," Natsu gave a cocky smile. "It sounds like to me that you should have listened to him." As fire started coming through his fists he shot up and tried to punch one of them. However, Yan blocked Natsu's punch and negated his fire as soon as his fist connected with.

"We do especially well against a fire mage!" Yan admitted before Ying circled quickly around Natsu and kicked him out back into the main lobby. This made both Vanish brothers run after their opponent.

"… I know that I'm powerless, but it kind of sucks being completely forgotten." Kain admitted out loud as outside the fight between the three started to intensify.

"You seem to be quite calm given the situation." Master Zash admitted as the sounds of moaning and grunting could be heard outside. It would have been considered awkward to listen to if not for the other sounds of kicks and punches accompanying them along with small explosions and fire blasts.

"Well," Kain stopped for a second so Natsu could scream his next fire attack. "To be honest, compared to all of my friends, I seem to be a safer position with you."

Zash waited for the loud explosion to die down before talking. "Oh? And what makes you say that? Are you aware that I've killed more people than you met in your life so far?" The old man's voice suddenly got dark as he slowly reached his hand towards his blade.

Kain nervously blinked, but then a second passed of nothingness—or rather a second passed with all three fighters below screaming their lungs out at each other throwing fists, kick, and fire blasts.

Afterward, Kain then looked surprised. "Actually. I would be afraid, but… you just seem nice. You treated Natsu in a kind tone and you admitted respect for someone who beat you easily. I think you've got high standards for morals."

Zash lowered his hand at the thought and just shrugged. "Damn my old age, I do have standards now."

"Prepare to die with our Ultimate Technique!" The Vanish brothers' voices were heard even back at the second floor.

At the sound of that, Zash rolled his eyes. "Oh those two. They've got potential, but their heads are too far up their own asses." He stopped speaking when the mansion shook hard. "Haha… kind of like me when I was their age. Dear me, I must be going senile in my old age if I'm reminiscing with an enemy."

Seeing the old man relax, Kain was prompted to continue his conversation despite still being tied up. "I still think you look great for someone your age. Even though you're wearing a suit, I can still see toned muscles. And I'm not a warrior."

Zash gave a small smile. "Huh, so that's what a real compliment sounds like. I like it when it sounds sincere."

After a very loud explosion, and the ground shaking somewhat, a voice cried out in disbelief. "Impossible, no one has ever survived our signature attack!"

The old man put a hand on his head after hearing his younger members. "I warned them not to underestimate their opponent." The elder sword master let go of the rope, freeing Kain. "I don't see a reason to shed unnecessary bloodshed, so you are free to go. You are a strange one, but I did enjoy my conversation with you."

The brown haired boy blinked, and noticed that both the rope and the old man had vanished in that one instant. He quickly ran out the door to see Natsu's recent fire breath absorbed by the frying pan one of the brothers was wielding.

Then he reflected it back at Natsu… who swallowed it whole. And then with that new power up, he quickly attacked again.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" The pink haired mage cried as a large torrent of fire slammed into the Vanish bro—

*SLASH!*

In one instant, all of Natsu's flames dispersed and Master Zash stood between him and his students.

And his sword was still sheathed!

"That is enough please. You've won this fight." The old swordsman stated as he stood back up after his swing.

"What, but master—"

Zash turned sharply to his students. "I warned you time and time again: never underestimate your opponents. Not only did you both reveal your trump cards too early, you lacked any judgment in realizing your opponent was not a conventional mage! The best ability mages have strong mental and physical strength, something you refused to acknowledge in your opponent. Had I not stepped in, you both would have lost. I am very disappointed in both of you."

The two brothers deflated after hearing those words.

However, Natsu seemed to smile and the flames around him started to emerge as he pounded his fists together excitedly.

"Huh! You're pretty strong, old geezer! I guess you fighting gramps wasn't just all talk. How about now you and I settle the—!"

Zash suddenly kicked a nearby stone up to the ceiling for everyone to watch. As the stone reached the height of its throw, a loud gasp was heard that sounded like a cry of pain.

Everyone looked down and was shocked to see Zash punching Natsu hard in the stomach.

Zash retracted his fist, making Natsu of all people keel over and start coughing. "Gods, you remind me of Markarov in his younger days as well. I'm sure one day you'll grow stronger."

The sword user looked up to Kain. "Please take care of your friend. We're no longer going to stop you from your objective. I have to retrain some of my students."

"M-Master, how did you do that?!" The oldest of the Vanish brothers asked.

"Come along you two, I have to scold you to your mother."

"W-Wha? Master please, you don't need to do that." The nervousness was definitely noticeable on their faces.

"I don't but I will." Zash gave a coy smile as he started walking ahead.

"W-Wait! Master!" Ying cried out before he and his brother shared a panicked look and ran after their old man, begging him not to tell their mother.

Seeing such a strange sight before him end, Kain quickly ran to the downed dragon slayer who was still coughing violently.

"Natsu! Are you alright!?"

Slowly, his coughing stopped to a halt. "Y-Yeah. He hit me right in the lungs… god that hurt like hell."

"The lungs? Come to think of it, that would be a good way to disrupt your magic, wouldn't it? Especially your flame breath one."

"Dang it! I want a rematch!" Natsu punched the ground, obviously unsatisfied.

Kain's expression turned deadpan. "Natsu, I am ninety percent sure he's the guild master of the Southern Wolves. And since he has battled our guild master several times, I think it's safe to say he's just below the level of Markarov, which basically means you don't really stand a chance against him right now." Honestly, why did it feel like he was the only one trying to be thoughtful about all of this?

"What!? I can totally take him and gramps! At the same time!" Natsu stood up quickly but then flinched in pain.

Kain gave his not-convinced look to the injured fire mage. "Well, I don't mean to tempt fate, but it was nice to finally see a stroke of good luck go our way. If the master was a bad guy, I think we would have been screwed."

It was then that both Natsu and Kain looked to see a large maid with pink hair, Virgo if they recalled, stand up and start to move.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!?" "Natsu, wait!" Natsu cried out while Kain called out after him.

Natsu climbed on to the very bulk woman's back and grabbed on to her top as she started to vanish. Kain, in panic, slid and held on to the ape like woman's leg as a portal opened up and sucked in all three.

Suddenly, they all saw stars in a vast cosmos like area and a large giant in fancy armor with really large nose-hair mustache drink from a tea cup with his pinky out.

Kain reacted accordingly to the situation, "What the f—"

And then all three left the starry dimension in a puff of smoke.

 **"Hmmm,"** The Celestial Spirit King put down his drink and started stroking his magnificent mustache thoughtfully. " **That's something you don't see every day...** "

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"—ck?" That made no sense what so ever. And just when I thought I could train myself to get used to how weird magic was in this world.

"Natsu!" That sounded like Lucy and Happy. I looked up, seeing both of them with shocked looks on their face along with Duke Everlue and Cancer.

"What the!? Kain!? You're there too!?" Lucy finally noticed me as she looked down. "How did you two get there!?"

I didn't really answer since I was still trying to process what I just saw. Natsu seemed to answer for us though.

"Well, we saw her getting up, so we jumped on her and then all of a sudden we ended up here." Why was he not saying anything about that odd thing we saw?

"Wait a second, so you both grabbed on to her in the house!? That means… you both must have passed through the spirit gate with her! That's impossible!"

"Spirit gate? Does it explain anything about a giant with star mustaches?" I managed to blurt out.

Natsu looked down. "Oh yeah, I forgot about him." Natsu, it had only been a less than 30 seconds ago.

"Giant with a mustache!?" Not only Lucy, but Everlue seemed surprised as they both shouted in shock. "You saw the Celestial Spirit King!?"

Celestial who now?

"Never mind that, Lucy, what do I do!?" Natsu cried out as I took time to get out of the way of the giant maid.

Realization hit Lucy as she told Natsu to finish the fight. The celestial maid went for Natsu, but he easily overpowered her. Lucy had used her whip to catch Everlue and launch him right into Cancer.

"Shrimp!" Cancer cried out as he snipped all the hair off the small, greedy man and turned towards his contracted partner. "Okay, I'm done. Does this look fabulous or what, shrimp?"

Natsu had also hit Virgo to the ground unconscious. "Oh yeah, way to go crab man! Huh? Shrimp?"

However, we had no time to celebrate our victory simply due to the fact the entire place started shaking.

"Okay, everyone out!" I screamed out as we all made a beeline for the exit.

As we got out, we all watched the mansion collapse into the ground with varying levels of emotion.

"This was pretty well done! We went out with a bang! You two are definitely going to fit in Fairy Tail."

"Natsu," I spoke up, watching the same thing as him but getting something different. "You do realize we destroyed approximately 10 billion property worth of jewels right?"

"10-10 billion!? He was that rich!?" Lucy cried out.

"Did you not see the fully plated gold bathrooms? Because he showed me at least thirteen before we got to the courtyard." They were… well who was I to judge personal tastes? "Though, with that in mind, we should probably head back to our client before the local enforcement comes."

That motion was carried in unanimous decision.

  


\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon we returned to our client, but to my utter surprise, it was revealed that the book was the client's father's work. Lucy had revealed that the secret of the book was actually a spell designed to rearrange the book to seem like a mess when in reality it was a great crafted story.

But still…

"I don't believe it," Lucy was still sulking even on our way back to Fairy Tail. "Who turns down 2 million Jewels?"

"If we had taken the money, it wouldn't have looked good. You gotta think about Fairy Tail's reputation."

"Aye."

Lucy still tried to argue to Natsu after he and Happy gave out their reasons. "But we made him happy right? We got the job done and we're walking home?" She emphasized bitterly. "And then to find out their not even wealthy… and they were just renting that house so everyone would think they were."

"Well," I spoke up. "Now that Kaby has that book, if he does publish it, he and his wife will more than likely get rich with how good you implied it was."

"See! We could have got a loan from them!" Lucy pointed over to me after I said that.

"Come on, Lucy, what's done is done." Natsu spoke up.

"By the way… the house… how'd you know it wasn't really theirs?" Lucy turned to Natsu curiously.

"Hmm? Oh that was easy cause they smelled like another house. Seemed pretty obvious."

"Aye."

"I figured it out the second time we entered because I noticed that there were no servants for such a big place and their courtyard wasn't as kept as Everlue's. If they were really rich, they would have kept up appearances." I added in.

"Of course you two animals and one weirdo would think that."

Well that's not very nice. "Hey, I think Happy is pretty normal as they come." I spoke up.

"Yeah!" The cat repeated.

"You're the weird one!" Lucy snapped at me before I smiled back at her.

I did my best impression to look calm and smug before answering, "I know."

"Hahahaha! He totally got you!" Natsu laughed immaturely as he pointed to Lucy. Even though he wasn't all that sharp, he figured out that I was just messing with her.

"Ugh! Can we get something to eat now!?" Lucy screamed. Despite the fact that even though it was night, we could easily see her blushing face.

We agreed with her. After all, we had to do something for unofficially completing a mission.

But considering this as my first official quest in Fairy Tail… it was rather fun.

Still, I've gotta find a way back home. That's number one in my goals right about now.

Yet, number two also is a curious thing…

How did I end up here in the first place?

  


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Omake # 2: Don't wine about it.

"Ahh, welcome back!" Master Markarov greeted the returning four. "How was your first mission?" He directed to both Lucy and Kain.

"We caused approximately billions worth of property damage in the span of less than an hour." Kain unashamedly stated, causing the small old man to choke on water.

"W-WHAT!?"

"Don't worry sir. We later found out the owner had pulled over a hundred illegal activities to gain his money, so no one is going to bill us for this damage at all."

The guild master put a hand on his chest to somehow stop his beating heart. "D-Don't scare me like that."

"Oh yeah," Natsu removed his bag and started fishing for something. "I found this in my bag that was addressed to you."

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

Natsu took out a bottle of wine before handing it to Gramps. "When I got my bag back after we trashed the mansion, I noticed it was open, but something was put in rather than stolen. I smelled the Master of the Southeren Wolves' scent on it, and since he seemed nice, I saw what he put in there and decided to give it to you."

There was a note on the bottle's side that Kain quickly picked up and started reading out loud.

"Dear Markarov, you don't remember me, but I wanted to thank you. A long time ago we were enemies, but you defeated me so easily that I eventually became a better person. Please accept this token of appreciation. -Zash The Slasher."

"I remember him. A powerful swordsman… it's good to see he's changed his ways." The master mused before looking at the bottle. "Hmm? Wow this is some expensive wine." Without wasting a second, he started drinking some.

"Aaahhh! That's some really good stuff!" The third guild master gasped in pleasure.

However, the bottle was stolen from him by Cana Alberona as she also drank some of the bottle. "Damn that is some good stuff!"

"Cana!" Master said with disappointment in his voice as he saw one of his guild members drink it as well.

However, Lucy noticed something in the corner of her eye. "Huh? Did the letter change?"

Natsu and Kain looked down back on the letter, revealing that it did indeed change. "If you're reading this, Markarov has drank the wine. Consider this payback for those humiliating defeats, you old fart!"

Everyone froze for a second before slowly looking back at the guild master with varying degrees of worry.

"W-Wha?"

And suddenly, his stomach growled and the third master toppled over.

"W-Was it poison!?" Lucy gasped at the thought.

Natsu gripped his fist, anger all over his face. "Why that bastard! I trusted—"

It was then that a loud farting noise was heard.

Everyone quickly covered their nose from the repulsive smell that quickly covered the guild. "Oh god, master!? Did that come from you!?" One of the guild members cried out.

Markarov quickly grabbed the bottle with an extended hand. Unfortunately, he was still releasing gas as if he was a machine gun and each smelled worse and became louder than the last. "T-That bastard," his voice was surprisingly high pitched and in obvious constipation despite what his bottom was doing. "There are powerful magical laxatives in here!"

"Wait," Kain said with his nose pinched so hard, water could barely get in. "Didn't Cana drink this too?" His somewhat squeaky voice asked.

Everyone slowly turned towards the heavy drinker of Fairy Tail with a flushed face.

"I-I don't feel so…"

The laxatives lasted an entire day, causing misfortune to everyone in Fairy Tail.

Meanwhile…

"Master, you seem to be in a good mood despite our lost." Yan admitted as he, his brother followed their master back to their guild.

Zash's smile only grew into something mischievous. "That's the lovely thing about losing sometimes, Yan. It makes payback that much sweeter."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kain meets with the famous Erza Scarlet, who asks Natsu and Gray to come along with her in an important mission... then Mira asks Lucy to go along with them... then Lucy begs Kain to go with her because there's no way she could handle the two alone. Considering how his luck has been so far, Kain decides to actually go shopping for magical gear to help him out in some way if--when a fight breaks out. Only the gods know if those things will actually help or not in the grand scheme of things.

The Magic Council, formed by Albus D. Merlin was then created in X5, five years after the Great Magic Gathering, a cataclysmal and horrible war where due to the lack of regulations, caused the land of Fiore to be caught up in a five year civil war between various kingdoms and clans. Almost seven hundred years later, in X686, Mavis Vermillion, the first Fairy Tail Guild master, formed Fairy Tail.

Whoa X686? According to the calendars I've been studying, it's now X784. Fairy Tail is about to have its 100th anniversary soon. I wonder what we're going to do for it? Having a guild last that long must mean something good.

"Uuuuhhhh! Kain, please stop moving around so much, I'm getting dizzy and stressed just watching you!" I momentarily closed the history book with my pen inside it as I heard Happy whining on another nearby table. The poor cat was staring at me this whole time? I really was just walking around and studying more about the laws and history of Fiore.

"Actually, I'm glad to have another book worm in the guild." I followed the voice back to the table where Levy Mcgarden was speaking.

When I had first asked around for the library, Mirajane pointed me over to the blue haired mage in the first place. She was the one who not only directed me to the library, but helped me pick out which books I could use to study Magnolia and Fiore history. She was really nice.

"Though I have to ask," She caught my attention as she pointed towards one corner of the table I had littered with books, pens and papers. "What are those?"

It took me a second to realize after she pointed that she was not pointing to Natsu and Gray. She was pointing at the origami animals I had made which Natsu, Gray, and Lucy were all playing or observing with.

"Oh right, you weren't here when I started making these. Those are called Origami. When I was a kid, I always felt jittery when I was told to sit still, but a classmate name Wu taught me something called Origami where you could fold paper to look like animals. Whenever I sit down and start studying, I sometimes turn the notes I'm trying to memorize into animals to help me remember them better."

Levi seemed to absorb that knowledge as she looked back at the table with paper animals. "Huh I've never seen such a way to study before."

I responded, "To be fair Levy, do you want to go to other people and watch them study?"

She laughed at the thought. "Point taken."

I turned back when Natsu called me out and brought a rather elaborate origami up. "Hey, Kain, what's this one?"

"That one was hard to master: it's a Chinese Dragon."

Natsu seemed confused as he looked at the snake like creature. "This looks nothing like a dragon." It made sense for him to say that since he had lived with one most of his childhood.

"Well in my world, and in that country, dragons are depicted without wings and look more snake like. It's kind of like how some mystical creatures are found only in mountains and some in forests, they have different ecologies and different biology to adapt to their home."

Natsu looked at me with a blank stare. I knew immediately what to say. "Different place equals different looking people and dragons."

"Ooh!" Natsu put his hands together as he got that.

Levy gave another small laugh. "You've been here less than a week, and you already know how to handle our resident Dragon Slayer?"

"I'm the kind of guy who rolls with the punches, so I do try to adapt quickly."

Lucy caught my attention as she pointed to an elephant origami. "How did you do this? I didn't know you could make a piece of paper look like an elephant."

"I can teach you later about that one." I told her simply. It wouldn't be too hard, and maybe I could teach Levy if she wanted to.

Then it was Gray's turn as he held up a sea turtle. "I don't recognize this one." It took me a second to explain what it was.

"Ha! You didn't know it was a sea turtle!" To be fair, I didn't put a lot of effort into that one, so Gray wasn't all at fault in that one.

"What was that, pinky!?" Of course the two wasted no time butting heads both metaphorically and literally as they both stood up and slammed glares at each other.

Wait a second.

"HEY!" I yelled, stopping both of them as I pointed down. Their combined energy was affecting the poor paper animals by lighting them on fire or freezing them over. "I worked all night on those! Will you two cut it out!?"

However, rather than stop, the two only seemed to intensify in their fight.

"Look what you did, lizard!"

"What I did!?"

I slammed my hand on the table to catch both of their attention. I can manage those two fighting since it's their thing, but I will not tolerate them destroying my work for something so small. "Stop it. Now."

The two looked nervous but begrudgingly looked away from each other.

I heard a small gasp as I turned over to Mirajane. "I've never seen anyone but Erza stop the two of them from fighting."

"Erza? Erza Scarlet?" I heard Lucy repeat before claiming that she heard of her, but never saw any pictures of her.

I've seen her name a few times in the cases I went over. She's an S-Class mage isn't she?

"She's the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail," Mirajane seemed to correct me as if she knew what I was thinking. However, I noticed that she was the only one smiling while everyone else except her and Lucy seemed to have the life drained out of them by just hearing her name.

Yet I later remembered an old saying: speak of the devil and he will appear.

The reason why I recalled this was because a few seconds later, one of the guild members came through the door with a loud bang and gasping for breath, Loke if I recall?

"She's back! Erza's back!"

If everyone was drained by just mentioning her name, the knowledge of her being here suddenly put everyone into frozen panic.

Curiously, I then heard loud footsteps in the distance as a large figure was obscured by the sunlight. As the figure walked in, I noticed a beautiful woman with red hair carrying a large horn or tooth of some kind that was decorated with jewels.

This woman was Erza Scarlet? After silently agreeing with Lucy's comment about her being pretty, she placed the object on the ground revealing that it was indeed heavy.

"I have returned. Where is Master Makarov?" The scarlet haired wizard asked.

Mirajane was the only one who stepped forward without any change to her character. "Welcome back, Erza. The master is at a conference at Clover Town right now."

"I see." A sand mage, Max, asked about the giant horn. "This is the horn of a monster I defeated. The locals were so thankful they decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Do you have a problem with it?" She asked that last question a little more defensively before everyone, not only Max, screamed out that they wouldn't have a problem at all.

"Now listen up!" It wasn't long before she got everyone's attention only to scold everyone for their misbehavior in recent events.

"Man, she's really tearing people a new one. It's like she's a disciplinarian." Lucy whispered over to me.

"That's Erza for ya!" Happy somehow heard Lucy's comment even though she spoke to me. Maybe it was because he was a cat.

Soon the red haired woman's gaze turned elsewhere. "Are Natsu and Gray here?"

"Aye!" Happy flew and pointed over to the—what the? Why are they hugging like that?

"Oh hey there, Erza! We're just hanging out like good friends do!" The hell?

"Aye!" The double hell?

Why was Gray saying nice things about Natsu? And why was Natsu acting like Happy?

Lucy had the same idea as she repeated, "What's with Natsu?"

Even though she just asked that, I looked over to see Mirajane already finishing a cartoon picture of Natsu getting beat up by who I assumed was Erza. "Natsu challenged Erza when they were young and lost pretty badly to her."

While that did explain one question, it brought up another. "How did you draw that so quickly?"

I was ignored as Erza turned back to Gray and Natsu before asking them for help. Considering how everyone was murmuring, I'm assuming something big is going on if an S-Class mage is asking for help.

On the side, I heard Mirajane gasp and claim that this was potentially the forming of Fairy Tail's best team.

Erza soon left, explaining she was going to prepare. As she did, she brought the large horn with ease.

Eventually, everyone went back to how they were, Gray and Natsu leaving to do their thing with Happy following after Natsu.

When I was going to clean up my notes, Mirajane walked up to me and Lucy. "Lucy, Kain? Can I ask you two follow them?"

Lucy was just as surprised as me. Technically speaking neither of us were all that strong by ourselves. What could we do to contribute to them and not get in their way?

I could decline, since I know I might get in the way, but…

"Please come, Kain! I don't think I can handle them by myself!" Lucy begged after agreeing with Mirajane.

As much as I would have liked to say no, I did have a soft spot for people who asked me for help. I eventually agreed with her as she then had to worry what to prepare for tomorrow.

However, this now meant that I needed to somehow do anything to prevent a repeat of last mission where I was captured by our opponents. I only came out unscathed because our enemies were actually nice.

"What's wrong Kain? You look worried."

I answered my manager. "I need to go shopping. I need things that will make me less useless if—when a fight breaks out." With Natsu, a fight was bound to break out.

"How about you go to the Magnolia Shoppe Center? They have a large amount of magical items there than can help." Levy answered for me.

"Really?" A shop that sells magic? Weird, why didn't I think something like that could come up in this world? "Where is it? I still don't know Magnolia all that well."

"If you need help, it's only a man's job to get on it!"

My attention was caught by that new voice as I looked back to see Elfman in high spirits as he usually was. The tall and bulky man slammed a fist into his chest as he declared, "I'll help lead you like a real man!"

The screams were a bit much, but I really appreciated the sentiment. "Thanks, Elfman, but are you sure I'm not bothering you?"

"A real man never gets bothered by anything!" Okay, I take that back, that man thing is getting very old very quickly.

"Ah, Elfman, please buy groceries on your way there too? We're low." Mirajane said to her younger brother—yeah, I still don't see it—as a reminder.

"Groceries are manly!" I'm going to assume that Mirajane was going to take that as a yes.

"Alright, Elfman, give me fifteen minutes to put everything away."

"Sure thing!" Oh thank goodness, he didn't say man. "Patience is a man's virtue!" Dammit.

I am so tuning him out whenever he says man now.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a little travel, Elfman brought me to the Magnolia Plaza Mall. It was much grander than I had anticipated; almost looking like any major mall back on earth besides the fact that it didn't have any parking lots. As I entered, I was greeted by sales people selling magical objects of all shapes in sizes. Some where lacrima objects that worked like television; clowns were using magic to change their face colors and look more cartoonish; and there was one corner where there was a giant line of little girls waiting to ride a unicorn.

I felt a large hand on my shoulder, making me look up at Elfman. "First time huh? It surprised me when I first came here a long time ago."

"I've never thought it would be possible to buy magic in my wildest dreams." I admitted to him as I watched a large amount of paper air planes pass us by and turn into animals running on the ground.

This started to feel more and more like something out of Harry Potter.

"Do they," the words I was speaking made me recall why I was here in the first place. "have a place that can sell magical gear that comes with magic already?"

Elfman was eager to point me to the right direction, a place that sold magic shoes. These shoes made someone jump three times higher and run four times faster while feeling light as a feather. After working for a while as a waiter and a lawyer for Fairy Tail, I had been given a kind bonus by Makarov for my hard work in making money less of an issue for him. So, paying around seventy percent of my savings, I bought the best shoes they had available which allowed me to run at sixty miles per hour for ten minutes straight and that could recharge over time by itself. These would be more than helpful if I got into another sticky situation.

However, other than those magical shoes, I couldn't find much else that could help. Things I saw in other stores were either too expensive or not good enough to catch my attention.

The shoes were great, but they clearly weren't enough for this mission.

Just when I thought about going back to see if I missed anything, I was distracted by a loud sound catching my attention and I turned to look over towards it.

I couldn't contain myself as a wide and surprised smile spread across my face. "No way! That's here too!?"

Elfman probably followed my gaze as he also spoke up. "Huh? You know that place? But it's mostly for just kids though."

Despite his obvious hesitance, I blazed right to the store in question. The bright colors, the sound of things whizzing past my head, and the overall chaos… it was just as I saw it so long ago as a kid.

What could only make this would be the people if they were—

"Now don't you think this one is a bit old, George?" I froze. Even through all the noise, all the screaming of both parents and children running around, all through the chaotic magic around us, I heard that voice.

"I don't know, Fred, if he's old that makes our mum ancient." The other voice sounded similar but at the same time different. It only confirmed my suspicion and made me as giddy as that one kid I saw faint just a second ago from smelling something at the do-not-smell sign.

"Oi, let's not talk about our dear old dinosaur like that! Bless her scales!"

It was then I noticed the shelves were where the voices were coming from. The voices didn't come from behind the shelves, from the shelves themselves! Soon said shelves started to transform into two familiar red heads.

They threw their hands out and welcomed me to a place, I've only seen once in movies.

"Welcome to Weasely's Wizard Wheezers! Where we manage mischief."

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! It's them! Maybe a version of them, but none the less it's my favorite movie twins, Fred and George Weasely!

I loved Harry Potter! Their movies are one of the major reasons I got into magic tricks in the first place! These two in particular where my favorite characters!

In front of some of my childhood heroes, I could only manage a single word. "Wow."

"Funny, we usually have that affect on toddlers. Geroge, you didn't accidentally give one of these tykes an aging potion did you?"

In response to his identical brother, the other one replied without missing a beat. "I seem to recall you giving them to these little buggers so they could get into the 18 and above stores."

"I was proud of them for coming up with that."

"Aye, it put a tear in me eye."

I was distracted when I heard Elfman behind me. In the narrow corridors of the store, Elfman seemed stuck because some animated book shelves were bullying him. Well that was something you don't see everyday even with magic.

One of the twins—I could never differentiate between them—circled an arm around me as he pointed to Elfman. "Ah, we see the problem: you're looking for a body swap potion to get this balooka's body for yourself eh? Not a bad plan if you think girls are into to muscle brains."

"You might want to shave his hair though. He looks like our Aunt Dende that one."

Elfman was more than a little defensive at hearing that as he pushed the animated book shelves to yell, "You are not shaving my hair!"

I said I wasn't going to, but I did get out of who I was assuming Fred's arm and turned to the two twins.

"I'm here to buy some specific gear." I swear my smile could unnerve even the Grinch at that moment. "What do you have here that costs the least but can cause the most amount of mayhem to a large amount of people in very little amount of time?"

Ever since I entered into the store, the twins were finally silenced. They looked at me, seemingly trying to process what they just heard until they both gave a smile that slowly formed as if they were one in two bodies.

They then spoke some of my favorite words,

" _We solemnly swear we're up to no good._ "

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A day had passed and I had just arrived a little late to the Magnolia Train Staion. I was carrying a bag pack and wearing my new running shoes when I spotted Lucy sitting down on a bench watching Natsu and Gray fight while holding Plue in her arms.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I just wanted to be prepared in case things went south." I decided not to mention the chance of that happening might have been one hundred percent.

I was only greeted by Lucy. "Kain, stop them!" Okay, that wasn't a greeting, but I suppose I could pretend it as one.

"You shouldn't be pushing the responsibilities to Kain, Lucy." Happy noted.

I just chose to look at the blonde and respond accordingly. "Lucy, I only stopped Gray and Natsu the first time because I didn't want them destroying my stuff. I doubt I can tell them both to stop now."

A few seconds later, we heard Erza's voice coming behind us. "I'm sorry I'm late. Did I take too long?"

"No, of course not." Lucy seemed to answer Erza and not me, but then I noticed she looked surprised. I finally turned after spotting Natsu and Gray act buddy-buddy to see Erza carrying a large amount of gear with her. I mean large as in, there is enough to fit a small storage room.

After Erza commented towards Gray and Natsu, she turned over towards us and asked who we were since she hadn't met us yet.

After saying our names and introducing ourselves, Erza seemed to recognize us. "I believe I've heard rumors of both of you fending off the wanted magi assassin, Fero, The Hangman. It's an honor to have both of you aboard."

Fend off? We were almost killed by that guy if it wasn't for stupid luck. I opened my mouth to say that there was some kind of mistake. However, Lucy quickly closed my mouth.

"Oh no, it's a pleasure to meet you!" I gave Lucy a look. Why not admit how screwed we might be if she asks something impossible off us?

"Erza!" Natsu walked up to her, no longer pretending to be Happy 2.0. "I want a condition for coming along this trip!"

After ignoring Gray's warning, he pointed to her.

"I want a rematch when we get to Fairy Tail!" It was pretty ballsy of Natsu to declare that.

Erza accepted the challenge after admitting Natsu's growth. This prompted the dragon slayer to get fired up—until we got in the train. Motion sickness really was the weakness of this poor thing.

Erza offered up a way to help him. Though I wouldn't use the word help to describe her punching him so hard, he gets knocked out.

Thanks to Gray's insistence, Erza explained her circumstances for this call in that she had accidentally stumbled upon a dark guild and did not recognize them until later. She overheard their plans about a forbidden magic called Lullaby. She assumed that a dark guild consisting of criminal mages would no doubt use forbidden magic for their own nefarious magic.

It's one of the reasons why she asked for Natsu and Gray's help: in order to fend them all off.

Which basically meant Lucy and I were fodder or potential meat shields… I mean I've heard of caught between a rock and hard place, but in this case the rock was a guild of evil mages and the hard place was my own friends who could pretty much level a town if they wanted to.

Can someone say overkill?

Eventually, we did reach our stop. However, while we made our way out, I noticed that I had forgotten to pick up Natsu's bag when I dragged him out of the train.

"I forgot Natsu's bag in the train!" I quickly handed Lucy the incapacitated dragon slayer for her to carry. "I'll go and get his stuff."

"The train is going to leave soon."

I nodded in appreciation to Gray's warning before I ran back to the train. "I'll try to be quick. If I'm not going to make it, I'll buy a ticket back!"

Unfortunately for me, after getting into the train, the doors closed behind me and started to move. I sighed and started to walk back to our cart which should have been three carts up ahead.

As I went through the second one, I heard a rather loud voice speak out. "Why is this thing so damn slow!?"

There were only seven people in this tram, and it was easy to tell even without magic that the air around those seven people didn't feel good. One of them was like some kind of chicken man, one looked like a gray gremlin, one was holding a crystal ball of some kind, two were a pair of twins, and the last one looked awfully like Shikamaru from Naruto.

The one holding a crystal ball spoke out. "Beware what lurks within. The option you loathe shall be your salvation."

Okay. That sounded ominous as hell. I should just walk passed them and…

*SLAM!*

… Why was the door locked?

"Hey you!" I turned back with all the speed of a turtle with weights. The Shikamaru Lookalike was heading his way towards me. "You're from Fairy Tail, aren't you?"

I glanced to the back of my left hand. I had recently just got this purple stamp after the Daybreak quest. I never knew something so small would bite me in the butt right now.

"Well yes?" I nervously answered, but why did they want to know about that?

"Ha! You official guild members make me sick!" Official? Why did he say official guilds? What are they unofficial like dark gu… aawwww shiiiiittttt.

I head a sound coming from behind me that sounded a lot like a magical hum. Before I could even turn, I suddenly found myself kissing the floor a second time.

Excuse me, Ms. Floor, We've got to stop meeting like this.

Jokes aside, I fought through the pain to look back up. But I only saw the sole of a boot stomping on my face.

"Ha! Remember this: just because you're in an official guild doesn't mean you're hot stuff!" Either he was putting more pressure into my face than I thought, or he sounded like something straight out of a kid bully's mouth.

I tried to move to somehow lessen the pain. But as I glanced up, I saw something that really caught my interest: a glowing flute that had a skull on it which was given three eyes.

The one who was planting his boot into my face seemed to stop his smug smile as he noticed the look of confusion on his face. As he did, he looked down and saw the flute he was carrying.

I suddenly felt the pressure from the boot lift from my face. However, I later found a greater pain soon followed as I was kicked into the door that made my body scream out it was in pain to my brain.

"You saw it! You saw Lullaby!" Wait, Lullaby? Isn't that the forbidden magic—god I'm slow. These guys are Eisenwald members aren't they? And we were in the same train as them!?

"Now we can't let you live!" The raven haired man darkly said as the cart suddenly became darker and colder by what I assumed was his magic.

It wasn't just him; the others also got their fists ready filled with magic to incinerate me into dust. I could have sworn my life flashed before my eyes at that moment if the Shikamaru lookalike didn't say these next few words,

"Any last words, fly?"

It was then that even though it wasn't much, I did buy things in case for an emergency.

I quickly reached for my pocket behind my back. "Yeah. I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."

In that moment I threw something at them and closed my eyes instantly. I knew what would happen next: I made the mistake of not listening to the twins when they first used it as a demonstration.

Cracker Spheres.

They were miniature fireworks. Small in size, but not in sound and light, effectively making them flash bangs that last far less and have much less impact. Minus the one I just used, I had two left. But this was all I needed to distract them from their magic and allow me to bolt out of the cart.

Activating the running shoes I had, I blazed through two carts down before reaching for Natsu's bag on top of our previous seat. I then figured it wouldn't be long before those guys would catch up with me, but if a fight broke out here, others would be in danger.

I eyed the room, looking for anything until I spotted something this train still had: an emergency stop switch.

There was an explosion two carts down, meaning they were already trying to go after me. Wasting no time, I pulled the lever down hard.

I held on as the train came to an abrupt stop. But I heard voices coming from the cart in front of me. With haste, I ran ahead into the door and shouted, "Everyone get out! There's a dark guild in the train!"

Another explosion. One cart closer. Time was running short, but everyone was still in panic. I couldn't let them go through here. I went back into our cart and closed the door behind me. Thinking rapidly, I got ready to jump out of a window, but as I was about to get off the door blasted open.

Needless to say, I wasn't glad to see an angry shadow mage staring at me with likeness to the devil.

I slipped out and started to run. Thankfully, the shoes gave me decent speed even if they wouldn't last that long. However, it obviously wasn't enough as I saw several blats of magic whizzing past me.

"Get him! Kill him! We can't let him live for seeing it!" I was just going to assume that was the Shikamaru lookalike barking like a dog as I bolted towards the forest and farther away from the civilians.

Hopefully the forest would help cover me from—okay no it did nothing to slow them down with how frequently increasing the blasts coming at me were.

"Get back here!" Oddly enough the magical hum came from beneath me this time. I looked down, realizing there was a magical circle right below me. Cursing my breath, I stuck out a right hand and jumped, making me grab onto a tree and making a hard right turn to avoid the magical circle from entrapping me with sand.

At this rate, they all would reach me. Thankfully, I still had some other party tricks the Weasely twins gave me.

This one was going to be a godsend, so of course I dropped it to the ground.

"Nausea Marbles." These devilish small spheres create a magical field of imbalance. Anyone who steps or passes by or over them will automatically trip if they are caught in their range. And I just dropped an open bag full of them while my pursuers were after me.

There was an obvious smile on my face as I heard the sounds of panicking and screaming in the distance and growing more faint.

I wish that could have been just it, but it seemed like today was not my lucky day as I noticed a shadow chasing after me. I guess you can't trip while moving in a shadow. Though I don't know how that works exactly.

I quickly fished my pockets. The crackers or the marbles wouldn't help here, which left the last trinket I bought from the Weasely brothers as my last way to defend myself.

A few seconds later, I was tackled from behind.

It was the Shikamaru lookalike as shadows formed behind him while pinned me down to the ground. "You're going to pay for that kid. But don't worry, we'll make sure you won't be going alone… huh?" he paused as he seemed to take a closer look at me. "Are you eating something?"

"Wanna see?" I blow—revealing another item I had bought: Trouble Gone Bubble Gum.

The gum bubble quickly expanded as I blew air into it. It hit my would-be assailant before exploding with a pop. Suddenly all the pink go wrapped around his face and constricted it tight to the point it looked like a second layer of skin.

With the weight of him lifted off me, I pushed him down and stole something from him before running like hell again.

I ran and ran until the magic in my shoes became low putting me back to normal speed, but by then I had already done what I needed to do.

I gasped for breath as adrenaline died down, but I threw my hands in the air. "I did it! I did it! I survived my first encounter with evil mages! Take that Universe! Who's the man? Kain's the man! You can't handle all this Kain!"

I may have been tooting my own horn a bit. In my defense, I was proud and didn't realize that I had just tempted the universe in my hubris.

"Kain!" "Kain!" The sound of several voices screaming to me caught my attention. At first I thought it was Eisenwald, but then I remembered none of them knew my name.

I turned to see Erza driving some kind of horseless carriage to a sudden stop. Soon everyone I was with, except Natsu, got out of the carriage with worry as they ran up to me while I removed Natsu's bag off my shoulders.

"Guys! H-How did you get here? I thought you'd all be on your way towards the hotel by now."

Erza stepped forward, clenching her fists. "Please forgive me, Kain! While we were on our way out of the station, we had found out that the emergency brakes were pulled in the train! Suddenly, we overheard one of the attendants claimed that a Fairy Tail guild member had called out an evacuation because of an appearance of dark guild wizards!"

"We put two and two together," Gray picked up from where Erza left off. "You were the only left in that train who had our emblem, but that also meant that you had meet with Eisenwald already."

Lucy worryingly put a hand on my shoulder. "We all knew you didn't have any magic whatsoever, so we feared the worse. Natsu was one of the first to try to get you back, but well he…" I followed Lucy trailing off and looking back into the car with Natsu slumped out of the vehicle. The poor guy looks like he had it worse than me.

"I am so sorry for not seeing this from happening! Please, feel free to punch me for my mistake!" Erza, I really appreciate that, but let's be honest: I'd be hurting myself more than you if I touched or attempted to punch you.

But that's not really the point here. "No, no! It's fine! In fact, it's better than fine!" I declared proudly. "Guess what? Those guys I ran away from? They were the ones who had Lullaby with them!"

Everyone's reactions were what I expected them to be. Erza especially seemed to tense at the thought. "Lullaby was that close to us!? Tell us where you last saw them so we may pursue them posthaste!"

I smiled while feeling proud of myself for this next part. "There's no need—"

"What do you mean there's no need!" Screamed the demon that instantly killed all joy I had in that one moment. "May I remind you the dangers that they can perform with forbidden magic at their fingertips!?" Erza's voice was calm, but the area around her along with her hair floating up, scared the crap out of me.

However, even with this traumatic scene in front of me, I still remained cool, calm, and collected.

"Waitnoplease! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! I can explain! Please don't let me die a loser!"

… as cool, calm, and collected as a scared little boy was anyway.

I didn't hesitate to reach for my jacket. "They were carrying Lullaby, but during my escape," I took the scary flute out and revealed it to everyone, making them all—but Natsu— gasp. "I was able to steal it from them before I lost them! Ladies, Gentlemen, and Happy, I give to you… Lullaby in all its spooky, dark magic goodness! Now with glowing ominous eyes! And it's yours for free if you call this number! "

I grabbed the thing just a second before I pushed the shadow mage off me. I wasn't going to return empty handed if I knew I could end it all that easily here and now.

"You stole Lullaby from them!?" I've heard of knocking the socks off people, but I wasn't expecting to knock almost all the clothes off Gray with that revelation. Though to be fair, I'm just going to assume he stripped at that time.

Lucy seemed especially happy. "Great job, Kain! Now we don't have to fight an entire guild for it!" Oh yeah, we didn't did we?

Happy also seemed to be in high spirits. "Aye! I'm sorry, Kain, I thought for sure you were going to die."

"To be fair, Happy, so did I on several occasions." Not even Happy's comment could bring me down.

"This is stupendous." Erza nodded at me with respect and admiration which really felt great. "With Lullaby in our hands all we have to worry about is Eisenwald. But half the danger is already gone. Excellent work, Kain!"

I instinctively put my free hand behind my head and closed my eyes with a smile. "A-Aww come on guys, you're making me blush."

"For someone without magic, you did well." Gray admitted. "The praise is worth it for now."

"That is true, but let us not get complacent. Our next step is to find Eisenwald before they go back into hiding. Kain, please hand the Lullaby to me."

"Sure thing!" I was all too eager to get rid of this freaky, glowing thing. Wait huh?

Erza pulled.

…

But the flute was still in my hand.

She pulled again.

It was still in my hand.

"Kain, let go." Her voice sounded with confusion and a bit of rising anger that I did not want to see again.

"I-I'm trying! My fingers aren't listening to me!" No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my left hand to release Lullaby!

"What?" Gray and the others gasped.

Now Erza was pulling with enough force to tear my arm but she was still pulling even through my pained cries.

"Oh no! Had Lullaby cursed Kain!?" Lucy gasped in shock.

Erza stopped pulling and summoned a sword out of thin air. "Then there is no choice! Apologizes, Kain, but I must cut your arm off before the curse spreads!"

"CAN WE CALM DOWN FOR A SECOND!?" I may or may not have shrieked in pure horror at that point.

Erza stepped closer while I jumped back away. "We must cut off your hand!"

"But I need it!" I desperately cried as I tried to pry the cursed flute off with my other hand… only to later find out that both of my hands were now stuck to it.

"It's getting worse! I must cut both arms off!"

Needless to say the thought of losing both of my arms was not only horrifying, but making me start to tear up in fear. "I'll die if you do!"

"We'll have Natsu cauterize your wounds!" I even saw Gray, Lucy, and Happy flinch at how hardcore that sounded.

"That in **no way** makes me feel better!" Cut and burned!? God dammit all!

"I shall apologize later!" Erza screamed as she ran up to me, making me scream in horror which may or may not have sounded like a little girl.

Suddenly, the flute started glowing in a blinding purple light, distracting Erza and saving my life…. I think.

"(Stop.)" A dark voice came from the glowing flute. "(I will not have it end like this.)"

"T-The flute talked!" Happy cried out in fear despite the fact he should be more focused that I'm in a hostage situation by a flute—how the hell are my adventures topping each other in how weird their getting?

"Could this be the magic of Zeref, the Black Sorcerer?" Erza then tensed as she pointed the sword at the flute… which meant she was pointing that really sharp blade at me. "I demand you release our comrade this instant!"

"(I refuse.)" Suddenly, large arms burst out of the flute. "(Attempt to follow me, and I shall end this pathetic, small, weak, skinny, maggot-like, unassuming, not at all charming—)"

"Why are you listing all those insults at me?" I can't believe I'm being insulted by a demon flute. That's a new low for the week.

"(Attempt to follow me, and he dies.)" He slammed the hands dooooOOOOWWWWNN!?

What the heck!? Did he just jump with large wooden hands!?

OW! OW! Why was he jumping like some super frog!? I can't handle this!

I knew I shouldn't have—ow—tempted the universe.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So getting kidnapped by an ancient, evil flute. Well, at least Kain Reynolds can say things aren't creative. However, he would VERY much prefer to not deal with said flute which has a demon powering up inside it and controlling some parts of his body.

"We have to save Kain!" Natsu cried out heroically.

As heroically as someone brought to crippling nausea could muster mind you, but it was something still worth praising would one could argue.

The celestial mage, Lucy Heartifilia, looked outside the fast moving cart with worry. "I hope Kain is alright."

Fairy Tail's strongest team was in hot pursuit of their kidnapped member, the non-magical Kain Reynolds, who was abducted by none other than the ancient and dark magical flute Lullaby, created by Zeref himself.

"How was Lullaby even able to hold him hostage like that? Was it because Kain had no magic?" Gray spoke out loud while he was doing his best impersonation of The Thinker, but with boxers instead of being fully naked.

"Gray, your clothes!" Lucy shrieked as the ice mage panicked to see his clothes off him again.

Suddenly, the car moved faster. Everyone in the carriage looked to Erza who was clearly more than ticked off at this point. "I should have seen it earlier! Kain has no magical affinity whatsoever, so of course if he was to hold something with so much dark magic, he would have no resistance if it tried something when he touched it! I should have had more insight to warn him!" Her anger was more placed to herself for endangering the most vulnerable of their group.

"Don't push yourself too hard Erza," Gray was somewhat nervous when he said this and as he put his jacket back on. "We still need you for the fight. What I wanna know is where the flute was heading when it took Kain?"

At the mention of that, Lucy's eyes widened. "Wait. When he left, I saw Lullaby following the direction of the train tracks."

"Wait that's the direction of Eisenwald; is the flute heading back there!?" Erza heard Gray say this and somehow applied more pressure into the cart to make them move faster.

Struggling to stabilize herself, Lucy added more to that thought. "But why would Lullaby go back to Eisenwald!?"

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has there ever been a time where you worked so hard to avoid someone, but no matter how hard you try you still end up meeting the people you didn't want to meet? What did Oedipus Rex and Kung Fu Panda always warn? One often meets their destiny in the path they wish to avoid it, right? I really should pay more attention to fictional works, they might have actually had some clever warnings I didn't pay attention to.

My current situation was something a lot like that, only it was real in a fictional world.

Lullaby made us land with a boom at what I assumed was Kusanagi Station if I recalled the map of the train before we got on. However, instead of meeting a large group of people who would be surprised at my appearance, I saw Eisenwald mages staring right at me and with some goth I assumed was their ace, Erigor.

Why is he wearing eye liner?

"Lullaby…" Oh wow, over doing it much? "How do you have it, fly?"

Okay mind, this guy is obviously really close to killing me. I have to say something clever enough to make sure he doesn't do that. Don't fail me now years of studying and late night work!

"I got it as present?"

The hell, brain? At least the jumping off the boat plan worked.

My eyes widened as I saw Erigor raise his scythe upward.

I can't believe out of all the ways I could have possibly died, being killed by an emo edgelord was going to be the one that did me in.

However, as he put pressure into his swing, I noticed Lullaby glowing and suddenly repel the scythe back.

"(Yield, mage. You shall not harm my host.)" Out of everything, Lullaby was the one who spoke up for me. Why was this the case? I have no idea.

"Lullaby," Erigor stared at the flute. What? So am I just not that important compared to a demonic flute that can kill people? … I probably am in all honesty… that does not help my ego. "So the rumors of you having a dark spirit within are true."

"(This host has interested me.)" That caught my attention. Why did it say that? "(I will ally myself with you in your quest, but make no move against this host, or else I will not hesitate to activate my song then and there.)"

As if to further emphasize this point, he then started making his eyes glow, making the Eisenwald mages except Erigor back away slowly.

The leader of said dark guild looked back to the train. "Where is Kageyama?" Something told me that was the name of the guy who looked a lot like Shikamaru.

On one hand, I was glad that people were no longer paying attention to me, on the other I saw what happened to the others when Erigor was done with them. Needless to say it wasn't pretty. He beat them all up pretty bad for failing to catch me, and that was the best understatement I could say for it.

They were put on duty of watching over me and making sure I didn't escape this time.

Needless to say, it was really awkward sitting right in front of the guy who tried to kill me a while back and is now forced not to harm me. If you looked into a dictionary and saw the word 'unrelenting', you'd find a picture of Kage looking right at me.

As the train started to move to the next station, Kageyama stood up to tower over me. "Listen here!" However, whatever attempt he had to intimidate me was foiled due to the fact he flinched in pain from the beating Erigor gave him not to long ago for almost losing Lullaby in the first place.

One of the others with us, the guy who told my fortune, tried to calm the shadow mage down. "Hey, Kageyama, chill man."

"Like hell I will!" He raised his fist and quickly punched me off my seat. It stung like hell, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. "This is your fault, you stupid fairy! You just had to butt into our business! Until we get to our destination, I'm going to make you live in hell!"

His idea of that was kicking me while I was down like some soccer ball.

In his defense, it really, really hurt. Being a law and magic nerd was obviously not helping my physique.

It also seemed like the flute wasn't choosing to do anything and seemingly let me suffer as long as I didn't die. I so hated this.

"Why!? Why are you doing this!?" I blurted in between the kicks.

"WHY!?" He stopped kicking, which only meant something worse was going to happen. Pulling me by my neck was a bit much though. "You don't know what it's like to be treated like a known criminal when it was the council that took away everything from us!"

Wait, that's not how I heard it from Master Makarov. "What the hell are you talking about!? You knew that taking jobs of assassination were illegal but you still kept doing them! You abused your rights, which is why they were taken from you; don't say that they were stolen from you! Is that all you do, blame others for your own incompetence!?"

That last sentence might have come from the fact that it was taking a lot for me to stay conscious or the fact I received a few blows to the head, but I didn't stop there.

"Let me remind you that I was trying to leave you alone but you were the idiot that locked me in and tried to beat me up for no reason! You were the one that got close to me so I could easily see the flute in the first place, and now you're blaming me for when it was obviously your fault to begin with!" I started to stand back up as his hold lessened.

"Well guess what, fancy-pants? Blaming other people for your own mistakes does absolutely nothing! You want something? Go and get it; don't just sit on your ass blaming everything that happened when you could be out there, doing something to make it better! Did you even try to explain to the council why you should keep your rights? Did you go to them and demand that your rights not be removed!?"

"Shut up!"

"No, you listen! It sounds to me you're not even trying to explain yourself!" I looked around to all of them. "Now tell me: why did you all become mages!? Was it just for the money? For fame, glory? Why kill if you know it brings only money, when other legal jobs can give a large amount just as easily!? Why did you all become a mage!? Just to use your powers to bully people!? What did you want!?" I shouted out and gasped for breath after my rant, seeing everyone oddly silent.

A strange thought occurred to me as I spoke much quieter. "Are those complaints really yours? Or are they what Erigor told you to feel?"

Their silence spoke more to me than any of their words so far.

But it was the sound of the door opening that broke the silence first.

"What is all this racket?" Speak of the devil and he will appear. Or in this case: speak of the wannabe goth and he will model walk into the train cart like it's a runway.

"(They were planning to betray you before forcing my host to play the song and have me kill everyone but them)"

I stared in horror at the flute as he stated one of the most remote lies in that moment in a calm manner.

"I-It's not true!" Kageyama and the other started to shiver as Erigor turned to them with eyes that screamed murder.

My eyes widened as he raised his scythe. He wasn't even going to let them defend themselves!? He believed the demonic flute over his own team!?

No! No! No! They can't die!

With everything I had left, I stood up, jumped, and slammed Lullaby into the back Erigor's head with everything I had left.

I had less than half second to feel proud for what I did, but I was too slow to enjoy it due to the fact I was distracted by a blast of wind magic and got thrown through probably… my mind was spinning around here so… I guess one or four carts down? I was still in one piece even though my body was super numb but somehow still in pain.

On the bright side, it seemed that this confirmed that I was indeed more durable than I thought I was from before. Despite all the pain I felt, nothing seemed broken which was practically a miracle by my old home's standards. Downside? It was only enough to keep me alive, not prevent me from feeling almost everything sore. And the numbness made it hard for me to even move anything left.

Man, having no powers in a world full of them sucked all ass. No wonder everyone always writes giving original characters powers when they enter into their favorite worlds. They rather be kicking ass than getting their asses kicked.

… which was happening to me.

"(Interesting, I sense your mind moving quicker than ever before.)" Of all the darn senses I still have why did hearing have to still be fine? I'd rather have white noise than listen to this jerk. "(I see your mind is attempting to distract the pain by focusing on sarcasm. How… rudimentary… but considering your state that is rather efficient.)"

Oh so that's why I've been extra snarky lately. According to him I'm doing it to avoid focusing on all the pain and fear that's bubbling up behind me. I guess that is the lesser evil here.

But why was he sounding more intelligent? He didn't seem as talkative as before and why did he lie?

"(I've been trying to tap into your mind, but for some reason, I cannot fully control you. However, I have been feeding off your essence, a rather studious and overtly calm headed mind and character. My magic has automatically decided that these traits would help me so I adapted them into my own being.)" In other words, he became smart by leeching off me. Go figure.

But what was that about him not being able to fully control me?

"Brat," I managed to look up to see Erigor finally walking over to me. "You dare touch me?" Said the guy who blew me through like four carts after just getting tapped on his head.

"You," Ouch just saying one word seems to take a lot out of me. "You shouldn't… hurt… guild members…"

Erigor looked even more edgier—I mean angry.

"You dare question me!?" I would have said yeah if I had more energy… and if he wouldn't kick my ass again if I did say something like that…. and if Natsu and the others were in front of me… okay so there were a lot of reasons why I couldn't talk back to him, but I liked to think I could. "I would kill you if Lullaby himself said he needed you. But seeing the fact you are writhing in pain like the worm that you are will have to do."

He then moved closer to me.

"But that is not enough."

With him glaring threateningly at me, I found the opportunity to finally do what I needed to do.

"Question: just what mascara did you use? It really brings out your eyes."

My question was answered with him grabbing my head and slamming me into the floor.

"So," I coughed several times. "L'Oreal?"

I learned that people's boots taste different. I say this because first Kageyama planted his foot to my face and Erigor kicked his foot into mine and they both tasted weird. "Take this punk into our special gift. I hope he likes being chewed like a rag doll."

Everything hurt as I was dragged into somewhere dark, cold, and metallic and thrown into it.

"Oh god," I gasped as I tried to at least sit up right despite by body pretty much being a jerk and not listening to what I wanted it to do. "I'm bleeding, yeah. There's blood on me. Ooooowwwww."

"(Your attempts to calm yourself are bizarre.)"

"W-Why," I asked. "Why did you lie?"

"(It seemed like an opportune moment to test a theory. How easy is it to kill humans without using my song? The answer surprised even me.)"

Oh great, not only was he an ancient demon bent on killing people, now he was becoming smarter, more cunning just by being trapped in my arms.

"(But if we are asking questions, who are you?)"

"Wha?" I gasped.

The flute went on to explain that he still didn't have full control of me. I was probably knocking on death's door and all he could do was ensure that my fingers were stuck to him. I had a surprising magical resistance despite my nonexistent magical affinity.

I thought he was absorbing my essence or something, but he explained something was… filtering what he could and could not do. Example: sometimes he could hear my thoughts like a while ago, and sometimes he could not like now.

That interested but confused me to no end. I lacked any magic, so what was preventing an ancient demon from fully killing or harming me?

"(Hmm? We are not alone.)"

I looked up from the flute to peer into the darkness.

I wasn't expecting a large pair of amber eyes to stare right back at me. I quickly looked at the wall I was leaning on and then I noticed there were runes carved all over the place that I was too injured to notice right away along with the fact that it was really dark.

The large metal cage was actually bigger than a normal train cart now that I was paying more attention. And then the eyes went up as well, revealing that there was indeed something big and scary in here.

In my hands, Lullaby started glowing brightly, and created a purple light that surrounded the box.

My eyes widened as I saw what I was locked in with: a wyvern. It was a thirteen foot tall, crimson scaled red wyvern with chains around its foot and neck.

I knew it was a wyvern because they usually had two large wings and two legs while a dragon had four legs and two wings. This one, I could easily see people mistake it for a dragon. It looked vicious, angry…

And it was staring right at me.

I coughed a little more violently this time, spitting blood down on the ground. "G-Good wyvern?"

The creature took a step towards me, sniffing me while breathing his really, really burning hot breath.

Suddenly, the collar around his neck started to glow, making the Wyvern screech in pain. It really didn't help my recovering ears since I couldn't close them.

"(The chain around its neck is what is keeping it bound by the other mages.)"

Okay, screw pain, I got up and moved when the wyvern tried to bang his head against my fragile body.

"Can you get it to stop!?"

"(Why should I? In fact, this is opportune. It kills you and now I'll have a better body to posses.)"

Well shit.

I avoided another headbutt by jumping to another corner, but I almost got hit by its tail.

I had to think of something, but I was still feeling snarky to just complain and not really deal with this…

Wait a second. Maybe sarcasm and wit can get me out of this!

"Or," I said mischievously as I looked to Lullaby. "you can't do anything."

"(Excuse you?)"

I avoided the dragonic cousin from biting me by sliding under him, but hurting myself more in the process. "Oh look at me, I'm Lullaby, I can't even control a bratty, wimpy kid! Eeiee! Face—Ak! F-Face the facts, three eyesSSSS! Y-You can't remove those chains. You can't even posses me!" I managed to somehow avoid the wyvern several more times in that sentence alone.

Gotta keep moving. Oh crap is he using his fire breath!?

"(You accuse me, the great Lullaby as weak!?)"

"Yeah, I bet their chain magic on this wyvern is too much for you!" I can't avoid his breath! Crap! Work!

"(I'll show you!")" With another flash of light, Lullaby stretched several tendrils at the chains of the wyvern and cracked them into pieces.

"(Do you not see the impudence of your pathetic calls, mortal!? I keep you around because you interest me, anything else, and I will not hesitate to kill you by ripping your heart out of your chest! Do I make myself clear?!)"

"… Crystal." I smile with all the smugness of an internet meme. "And adults always told me that I could never learn from cartoons. Thank you, Bugs Bunny."

There was a moment of silence until the flute opened up with a stronger voice. "(YOU TRICKED ME!)"

"For someone getting my essence, you sure don't know how to use it." I laughed before realizing one thing.

I only broke the collars.

The wyvern was still there.

I looked back up to the creature, who was kicking away pieces of the chains that surrounded it. Now that it wasn't trying to kill me, I noticed that it looked just as injured, with broken and cracked scales, as me. Well, it was obviously in much better condition than considering I had just lost all feelings in my legs again—oh here we go.

*Thud!*

"Oooooowwww…" Adding insult to injury, I heard the wyvern walking up to me. I tried to get back up, but instead, the wyvern just seemed to stop just before me, and gently nudge it's head on mine. It felt really hard and hot…

But it strangely felt nice and warm.

I… I was so tired. So I… closed my eyes and leaned into the wyvern.

I… I… I still want to see Natsu and the others.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Despite how urgently Team Fairy Tail—name still pending—was heading towards Oshibana Station, Happy seemed distracted by something as he tried to talk to Lucy about something important.

Unfortunately, he couldn't recall it and just kept calling Lucy weird when trying to actually recall it.

However, everyone turned their attention when they saw smoke up ahead.

At the station itself, there was a large group of people gathered around. And so the five—even if you counted how out of it Natsu was from the trip over—tried to get into the station.

This was also the part where Lucy found out more about Erza's character via the amount of knocked out guards by head butt related injuries when they didn't answer her instantly.

Through this, they found out Eisenwald was holed up in the station and a group of militants tried to go in and stop them. They later found out that said group were beaten like toys and stood no chance against a guild filled with mages.

Soon Team Natsu—name still pending—came face to face with the entire guild of Eisenwald.

Erigor was the first to speak to them while sitting above a train. "Welcome! Step into our parlor, fairy tail flies! We were getting bored just playing with this one."

Natsu, previously dizzy, suddenly snapped out of it when he smelled blood and looked up.

Fairy Tail was horrified to see Kain, bruised, beaten, bloody, but still holding on to Lullaby while Erigor dragged him out into the air.

"C-Can I just say you guys are the worst rescuers… ever?" Kain managed to weakly laugh as he saw his friends.

"For the love of god, why won't you shut up!?" Erigor was more than a little peeved to see nothing he did could stop the blasted one from talking. He did however punch him in the gut.

"Ahahaha!" Kain managed to gasp. "Your minions hit harder than you."

"I cannot wait to kill you."

Kain returned the glare Erigor was trying to give even though he was weakened and injured. "I'm not intimidated by bullies."

"Don't worry buddy," Natsu pounded his fists. "I'll make sure these guys pay for what they did to you."

"We don't take kindly to those who hurt one of our own." Erza's voice and glare could scare death into cowering fear.

"Same, you're all going down!" Gray also prepared himself as things were looking like a scene before bloodshed.

"Tch." Erigor flew up with Kain in tow. "Deal with these brats while I go make preparations."

The scythe using mage then flew out of the window, much to the charge in of Natsu as he bolted right after him.

"Gray, go after him!"

"What?"

"Go." Erza demanded, scaring Gray as he ran after Natsu.

Seeing two mages go after Erigor, two other mages also vanished to go after Gray and Natsu.

"You think you're all hot shit, don't ya!?" One Eisenwald mage declared as he got a strange device and pointed to a large metal container that was moving up and down violently. "Well feast your eyes on this bad boy!"

Ht then pressed button, opening the cage and revealing a very, very ticked off wyvern.

"A wyvern!?" Erza looked at the creature as it started glaring and growling angrily at everyone around it.

"Hahaha! This was a gift we bought and it comes with a controlling shackle that'll allow us to make it attack you!" He motioned to the box he was holding. "Listen to me you stupid wyvern and kill—"

That person didn't get to finish his sentence due to him suddenly catching a curious case of a wyvern foot stomping him down into the ground.

The large red wyvern gave an ear splitting screech before promptly attacking all Eisenwald mages around it, making them all panic and cry out in surprise.

"Wow, it's attacking them!" Happy threw his paw out at the obvious sight before them.

"Oh!" Lucy then took a closer look. "They said it had shackles, but I don't see any on it. I think I see fragments of chains in the box they opened."

Erza looked over to Lucy. "So they've lost control and now it's attack them for enslaving him? I suppose that is most fortuitous."

One of the Eisenwald mages was thrown nearby them, disbelief on his face. "H-How? As long as the chains were on him, he would listen to us…" his eyes widened, revealing all the red veins in his eyes. "Was it that fairy brat?! That does explain why he wasn't injured after we locked him in there…"

And then he fainted.

Overhearing this, Lucy smiled. "Did you hear that!? Kain released the wyvern that's now helping us!"

"He has earned much of my respect for doing so much even for someone in his state and condition. All the more reason we must try and rescue him from Lullaby and Erigor. Come on. We can deal with the wyvern later, Kain comes first—"

However, before she could leave, Erza jumped back, pulling Lucy and Happy before a large flame breath almost singed them into cinders.

They all looked back to the wyvern roaring angrily at them.

Lucy and Happy were obviously scared by the presence of the creature. "W-What's going on!? I thought Kain helped it!" Happy cried out as he hid behind Lucy.

Erza got into a fighting stance. "It must believe we're with Eisenwald! Lucy, move!" She shouted as she ran away to avoid the flames. Despite wearing armor, she moved swiftly, picking up a blade from her space and running towards the wyvern. The wyvern then suddenly increased his speed, surprising the scarlet haired mage as she was whipped into the wall by his tail.

Erza braced for impact but then landed back on her feet.

"What?" Happy looked scared. "I-I've never seen Erza nervous before in my life!"

Lucy quickly looked to see that Erza was indeed starting to sweat as the wyvern stalked closer. In truth, Erza could handle a wyvern… if she was at her full strength. However, she had spent a large majority of her magic getting here in the first place. The Eisenwald mages, she could handle. An opponent such as the Wyvern who seemed intelligent and skillful as he was strong and ferocious would prove to be a problem to even Tatiana at her current state.

"No choice. Re Equip!" In a flash of light, Erza had changed armor into a red and black armor with a fire themed sword before charging right for the wyvern.

In retaliation, the pseudo dragon spewed fire onto her, only for the armored mage to slash through the flames and kick the dragon's chin upward. The pseudo dragon staggered back but then stood firm as he tried to swat away Erza. Thankfully, Erza backed off before getting hit by the tail again.

The wyvern snarled and fired another large fire breath at the S-class mage. With another swing of her fire blade, she cut the flames in half—

"Huh—AAUUGHHH!?" No sooner than she did, this time, a talon was waiting for her as the wyvern swooped in and slammed her into the wall with his talon. Then he quickly wrapped his tail around her body and slammed her into the ground opposite from where she was before lifting her up and tossing her aside.

The red haired mage braced for impact, but this time she felt something a lot softer break her impact, like she was caught or something.

"Good job, Taurus!" As Erza opened her eyes, she noticed a giant cow mentioning something about nice body and slowly put her down.

Lucy looked over to her, getting her whip ready while also somewhat sweating a little. "Erza, let me help to!"

The S class mage gave a small smile. "I appreciate it." She slowly prepared her blade at the wyvern. "Be cautious, this wyvern is more skilled than he appears."

However, it was then that Erza noticed something. The wyvern was now panting hard. Was it actually weakened as well? Now that she was paying more attention, she noticed several cracked and cut scales, the dirt all over it, and how one of its wings kept twitching.

Was the wyvern also battered and injured? But it kept fighting even in its weakened state, why?

Suddenly, there was a loud humming sound heard across the station. Everyone panicked for a second at the thought of it being Lullaby, but instead the outside suddenly got covered by a large gale of wind.

The wyvern looked away from his opponents and roared with anger as it flew right for the wind wall.

"It's ignoring us?" Lucy asked before seeing the wyvern bash its head against the powerful winds.

Erza also watched it as it tried to break through, but then stepped back as the wind wall repelled the pseudo dragon back into the station.

"That must be Erigor's magic trapping us in. Where could he be going if he wasn't planning to use Lullaby here?" The red haired mage looked towards the injured dragon and turned back into her normal armor.

"Huh? Erza, where are you going?!" Lucy cried out as she saw Erza run up to the fallen wyvern.

The S-class mage didn't know what compelled her to walk up to the creature, but all of her instincts told her that there was something about this mighty creature that seemed… sentient. The way it fought even when it was tired, how quickly it adapted to when she went through his flames. How it seemed so angry… as if a friend was taken away from him.

"Stop!" The knight mage placed a hand towards the pseudo dragon before removing one of her shoulder pads. "Do you know this symbol?"

Her hunch was validated when she noticed the wyvern relax.

"You do know it, don't you? And you do understand me? Then please, listen to me when I say the friend that freed you was our friend as well! We need to work together in order to escape and save him, will you help us?"

Lucy tried to speak up. "Um Erza? I'm not sure that…" The blonde mage became silent as the wyvern nodded.

Erza smiled at the reaction and jumped off, allowing the wyvern to stand up, albeit weakly.

"You were quite a fierce opponent. Perhaps when we are both at full strength, we can have a proper match." The wyvern, in response to the red head's comment, just snorted weakly.

Lucy walked up somewhat hesitantly, eyeing the red dragonic beast carefully while speaking to Erza. "Now what?"

"We need to find a way out of here. No doubt that wind wall is Erigor's doing. I doubt I could break through if this wyvern here couldn't."

Erza looked around and then spotted a still conscious Eisenwald mage slowly getting back up. Unfortunately for him, this meant Erza would now pick up him by the collar and glare dangerously at him.

"This wall of wind, what is it and how do we break free of it!?"

The Eisenwald mage seemed to look afraid before noticing the Fairy Tail brand on Lucy's hand. His eyes widened as he looked to the swordswoman. "You… you're with that boy, aren't you?"

To be fair, the S-Class mage seemed to be taken by surprised by that question. She was half expecting this man to be difficult. "Yes, we are. And we will save him from you."

The man's eyes widened at the sound of that. It looked as if some part of him wanted to honestly help them but he seemed hesitant and fearful. He looked down to his right to see a cracked crystal ball before sighing. Now he looked more resolved as he looked back towards the woman holding his collar. "He saved us and six others from Erigor. Even though we treated him badly, he still saved us from our own guild mate. His actions and words changed us," after pausing for a while, the fortune teller continued. "That is Erigor's spell and it can't be broken through. However, look for Kageyama, he can probably de-spell it. He's the black haired man that went after your friends, and he also was one of the men your friend saved."

After hearing all of that, Tatiana nodded at the man. "You have my sincerest thanks."

"Traitor!" One Eisenwald mage in the distance coughed. Erza Scarlet glared at this man in particular in response to that.

"The only traitor I see is your guild who was so quick to get rid of your own members!" Erza then turned to Lucy and Happy. "Tie the rest of them up but leave the man who helped us in a different area. Keep him safe from the rest."

As she left to find Kageyama, the man who had shouted traitor slowly whispered to a wall. "Laracka, get out here!"

A magic circle appeared discreetly from the other's notice. Out of it, a man cautiously poked his head out. "I'm sorry, but I was scared."

"Go to Kage before they do, now!"

"Please don't make me! I'm no good at fights!"

"Calm down," the eyes of the mage looked desperate despite his calm voice. "It's a simple job, even you could do it."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I… I can't… stay up much longer. My eyes are getting really heavy and I'm so tired along with hurt like crazy.

Erigor is shouting some kind of profanity at me, but at this point he's just a broken record. Maybe I should have done the choice in not going with the main story.

…

Too late for that; I like these guys I've met even though it hasn't been long. They were fun as my friends back home.

Though I'm sad to say that it's looking more and more like I might not make it.

Dammit. I didn't even start finding a way back home. I'm really sorry dad.

I'm really, really sorry.

"…"

Huh? Oh right, the town. Even I can see it through my heavy eyes. Dang. I can't rest yet. I need to find a way out of this…

Ugh… so tired… so hard… I can't…

"We've got you now!"

Na…tsu? Either I'm dreaming, or is that Natsu and Happy coming at us like a missile— ow. What?

I…

I'm… sorry. I couldn't stay awake anymore…

…

…

…

"…in!"

Ugh.

"K…"

Oww…

"Kain!"

"W-What?" I opened my eyes slowly. As my focus slowly returned I saw Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy, and Natsu all smiling at me. Either I died-wait no. I'm still in pain.

"Kain! You're alive!" Happy cried while sniffing tears.

I managed to give a smile even if it did kind of hurt to move just some facial features. "Of course I'm alive, Happy. Who else is going to cover up Fairy Tail's law suits?"

They all seemed relieve to hear that, even though my voice was somewhat weak. "You guys suck, you know that? I expected rescue like an hour ago."

"We promise to do so a thousand times better next time." Erza admitted.

I then felt my arms, which was weird because I thought I was holding Lullaby. I looked down to see both of my hands were free.

Happy was the one who noticed this. "It seemed like when we knocked you and Erigor in the sky, we must have disrupted even Lullaby's hold on you to make him let go!" Then the cat pointed over to Lullaby who was just a few feet away from us.

"I hate that thing." I managed to blurt out.

Natsu was all too eager to concur by pounding his fire fists together. "Me too! I'm going to burn it to cinders worse than Erigor for what he did to you!"

That made me realize that Natsu was also roughed up somewhat as I looked beyond the team to notice Erigor in a crater, unconscious and smoking.

"Oh, you beat him up? I was hoping to see you kick his ass in front of me though."

Natsu gave me a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about that, Kain! I kicked his ass hard for what he did to you!"

While I greatly appreciated it, I noticed something moving behind everyone. I tried to speak up but I was too slow as everyone was forced to move out of the way by the carriage along with… Kageyama?

"Thanks for Lullaby, suckers! You shouldn't have left your guard down!" I don't know why he was here, but I saw him run away in the carriage while using a shadow to snatch away Lullaby.

However, seeing all of our hard work gone to waste made me a little more than peeved because of that.

"Alright," I felt pain when I realized my face was making a frown. "who brought the douche bag?"

Gray instantly turned to Natsu. "Fire Breath did!"

Natsu seemed angrier at Kage than Gray at that moment. "That bastard! After what we did to help him!?"

Erza was the one to quickly stand up. "We must go after him!"

"How!? We don't have a way to catch up with him if we're dragging Kain and Erigor along!" Lucy pointed out.

It seemed like fate was going to help us once more as a loud roar caught all of our attention to the sky.

"Oh hey! He followed after us after all!" Natsu waved as the Wyvern dove down towards us.

"The wind wall must have died down instantly when Erigor was defeated! He must have flown after us even when we left him behind after using Virgo!" I have no idea what Lucy said, but I'm just going to ask later.

"This is perfect." Erza said before looking towards the Wyvern. "We need your help. Will you assist us once more?"

The pseudo dragon nodded and soon Erza and Lucy helped prop me atop the wyvern's back while Gray and Natsu hung on to the wyvern's talons. Erigor was tied up by the wyvern's tail as it then started to fly up with Happy hanging on to Lucy.

"Oh wow!" I managed to weakly say. "So this is what it's like to ride the back of a wyvern. It's kind of like how I imagined ridding a dragon."

"I know right! It's so cool!" Natsu declared.

"Oh? Natsu, you don't seem to be having motion sickness." Lucy noted as the wyvern flew higher.

"Why would I be motion sick on a wyvern?" Natsu asked simply.

"Regardless, we must go after Kage!" Erza shouted while pointing in which direction we had to go. "There is no telling what kind of damage Kage could unleash!"

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

None.

He. Did. No. Damage.

Okay, no. No! That's it!

"Time out! Time out!" I ended up shouting out loud and stomping over to Kage after he dropped Lullaby to the ground following Master Makarov's conversation.

I know I was just recently healed thanks to Master Bob and probably shouldn't be pushing myself, but I was having none of it as I walked up to Kage.

"I was attacked, chased, almost killed, tortured, was locked in a steel box with a wyvern, dragged like a doll in the sky, dropped down to the ground like a boulder because it was all for the sake of stopping Lullaby. And you just choose NOW to do the right thing? Where was any of THAT earlier today!?" The anger and hysteria coming to my voice as I ended my rant was very noticeable.

I heard Natsu laughing in the distance and I quickly snapped my head back and barked, "Dragneel, I have access to the guild's debts! Do not make me triple yours!"

That shut up him up almost faster than Erza ever could.

"Uhh well?" Kage started before looking to Markarov, who was wisely stepping away from this. "Y-Your words and actions inspired me? A-And thank you for saving my life?"

I was later told that my eyes were twitching dangerously without me noticing after he said that.

"N-Now, now Kain. The important lesson is that he did learn his lesson. And while he may be punished for his actions, he'll live to see a brighter future." Master Makarov tried to say to help put me at ease.

I inhaled deeply and calmed myself down. I heard everyone behind also seemingly sigh in relief as well.

…

Screw it.

I punched Kage in the nose.

The man groaned before cradling said broken part of face. "W-Whab waz thaf door?!" Huh did I break it? I mean, I tried to give what was left in my body into that one punch but it looked like he was pretty weakened too.

Yeah, I'm not even sure a saint would forgive the whole torture thing. Maybe they would, but I sure as hell ain't no saint. "I'm a petty son of a gun. Consider us even." I dusted my hands off.

"And you guys are telling me that he isn't a mage?" Guild Master of Quatro Cerberus Guild, Goldmine, asked with some nervousness even though I was somewhat far away. It was a quiet night despite everything that happened so far, so I guess that made some sense. "Yeesh, Maky, do you only bring in odd balls?"

"I think he's quite the looker! Men love battle scars, even if they are healed." Guild Master of Blue Pegasus, Bob, gushed from the audience from the side. Considering those people we met in Hargeon, I wasn't all that intimidated by him. In fact, he seemed like a really swell person. I really do have to properly thank him for healing me better with magic.

Wait.

I feel like I'm forgetting something very important.

"(I see.)" How the hell did I forget about a talking demon flute?!

We all turned to Lullaby, who was now floating mid air and glowing purple.

"(You have my thanks, Kain Reynolds. Had I not been tricked by you, I would never considered this possibility.)" Okay, if it's thanking me, it's obviously not a good sign.

The flute suddenly levitated off the cliff and several dozen magical circles started appearing and covering it like some kind of cocoon. In a flash of light, Lullaby reappeared around ten feet tall with a long humanoid but wooden body.

"This is my original form albeit made smaller." The new voice of the demon said as he started viewing his own body. "I have learned much from our short encounter human. As your reward," He pointed a palm towards me. "Your death shall be swift."

Erza, Natsu, and Gray all got in front of me. "If you want him, you'll have to get through us!" Natsu declared with all the rage of fire itself.

"You say you made yourself smaller? Well then this should be easier to knock you off your feet!" Gray got prepared to attack.

"You will end today, Lullaby!" Erza declared as well before all three charged for the wooden demon.

Erza was first to—get knocked back into the hill cliff before Lullaby moved with uncanny speed and crescent kicked both Natsu and Gray right into the guild master's building.

Lullaby slowly lifted his hand. "Power… is nothing without mastery." Then he made a crushing motion with his fist as he finished. "I understand that now."

"This might be trouble." Makarov noticed darkly as Erza, Gray, and Natsu went back to fighting Lullaby, only for the wooden demon to dodge and counter Fairy Tail's greatest team with relative ease.

"I-I don't get it!" I yelled to him. "I had no magic power whatsoever, so why does he say he gained something like a power up from cursing me?"

Makarov looked to me before sighing. "It's because you've obviously got a sharp mind, Kain. That's far more dangerous."

"What?"

"From my understanding, Lullaby was bent only to kill humans by playing his song. However, by cursing you he gained something that made him even more dangerous: cunning and the ability of observation. These aren't necessarily physical strengths, but they give him the ability to know how to fight against those stronger than him." I looked back to the fight in horror as Lullaby grabbed Natsu by the head and pinned him to the ground like a basketball player would slam dunk a ball.

"I can sense extraordinary power within Lullaby, but he's using that power in a compact body that is boosting his speed and accuracy than raw power."

I grit my teeth as I see all three of them get knocked back into the building with relative ease. Erza came out in a different armor that made her move faster. However, her sword was blocked by a magical circle that was used as a barrier. Lullaby opened his mouth, and fired a beam that hit the S-Class mage and exploded some parts of the forest.

"Erza!" Lucy cried out.

I couldn't take this anymore! This was all my fault, but I'd be damned if I just let everyone suffer for my mistake!

I looked at Lullaby as Gray called out an Ice Lance attack. Again, Lullaby created another magical barrier to block the attack before jumping out of the way when Natsu tried to burn it with his dragon flames.

It was then that I noticed something that went on as the fight continued. I quickly looked back and ran up to the wyvern that brought me here.

"I need your help! Please!" I told the creature with urgency as he allowed me to get up on his neck. I looked to Lucy and Happy and shouted, "You two, get to the others!"

"What?"

"I have an idea!" I yelled back to the celestial mage as I motioned to the wyvern to fly up. Up in the sky, I noticed Lullaby looking over to me. In that second I felt my heart skip a beat out of fear, but I shook my head and told the wyvern to burn him.

The wyvern unleashed a powerful fiery breath, but Lullaby did what I expected it too in that he summoned a magical barrier to stop the flames. I held on tight as the wyvern followed my next instruction and swooped in, talon first to kick Lullaby along with his barrier into the trees beyond.

"Oh thank god, that barrier could only handle one attack at a time." Pressuring two attacks, the flames then the talon was more than enough to finally land a blow on him.

Acting fast, I jumped off the wyvern and pointed to where Lullaby went. "Can you do me a favor and hold him off for as long as you can!?"

Again, the wyvern seemed to understand and obey me instantly as it flew after the thrown Lullaby with a roar.

I looked towards Natsu and the others before running up to them. "Guys, listen! I have a plan!"

"Well speak up," Gray grunted in pain before continuing. "So far what we're doing doesn't seem to be working."

I nodded at what he said. "I noticed something when you guys were fighting him. He kept avoiding all of your attacks. I then remembered he said that he miniaturized himself. By making himself smaller and faster, I think he's more vulnerable to a good hit because he sacrificed power and defense for speed and accuracy. There's a good chance he might still be vulnerable if we land some good hits on him."

"That's all well and good, but he's way faster than he looks!" Lucy noted.

"Actually, I have a plan for that." I responded. "But we're going to need everyone to beat him."

"Go on, Kain," Erza began. "tell us your plan."

I was about to until a loud dragonic shriek caught our attention and we saw the Wyvern was thrown back at us.

We all scattered to avoid being crushed but also saw Lullaby walking towards us.

"Looks, like we're doing it on the fly! Natsu, Gray, Erza hold it off for a second!" I yelled quickly as the three didn't hesitate to go back to fighting the demon.

I ran up to Lucy and pointed to Lullaby. "Get Aquarius out when I say so!" No sooner than I did, I already saw Natsu get knocked back through several trees.

Lucy saw this too, but only started to panic even as Natsu got back up...only to be tackled by a flying Gray thrown his way. "W-Wait Aquarius?! B-But there's no water!" She cried out to me.

There was a large magical hum in the distance as Erza avoided several magical based attacks from Lullaby. However, instead of hitting their target, they exploded right behind her, knocking her off her feet and allowing Lullaby to kick her back through the guild master's building.

"Can you do without it!?" I turned back after Gray and Natsu were able to charge at the demon, and ward it away further from us.

"I-I think I can?" Lucy responded a second before Erza got back in the fight.

It had to be good enough. "Summon her now!" I turned towards Natsu and the others. "guys, back off and get back to the cliff! Lucy, Happy, and I will handle it from here!"

All three mages seemed to hesitate for a second. I think I heard Lucy gasp before the three did as they were told. Lullaby, seeing his first opponents flee, turned towards me and Lucy's direction.

"K-Kain!?" Lucy cried before I looked back and saw that she didn't summon Aquarius yet.

"Hurry up, Lucy! Happy, get ready to get Lucy out of here!" I yelled as I put on my shoes and started running. They were fully charged but I was to run up to Lullaby and do my turn with distracting him.

"What are you up to, mortal?" The three eyes of Lullaby looked down on to me.

I forced a smirk despite how I knew was shivering. "What? I thought you got my essence. You should know that I'm doing a plan to beat you up."

"Then it's best to kill you now." I wasted no time and jumped back to avoid him striking at me. He was much faster than the others, so even with the shoes it was getting somewhat hard to avoid him.

"Lucy!?" I yelled before sliding under a beam of energy that blew behind me.

"I-I got her out!" She yelled as she pointed to the angry looking blue mermaid.

"What do you want girl!? This obviously violates our contract—"

"Hey, fish girl!" I yelled, catching the irritable spirit's attention instantly. I cupped my hands and shouted out loud. "You're a whore and your boyfriend has never been sober in his life which is the only reason he puts up with you!"

Damn, I expected some reaction from the aqua spirit, but not from Lucy looking so horrified that the color from her left her body.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, PUNK!?" The devil herself screamed as a large amount of started water started to gather.

"Happy, get Lucy out now!" I yelled, snapping both the cat and the girl out of their stupor and doing what they were told.

I looked to the shocked and surprised Lullaby before smiling. "See ya!" I yelled to him before I ran quickly to the wyvern, who was getting up from his beat down, and then flew away instantly as I climbed on to him.

It was fast enough to dodge the tsunami coming in to us that swept away even Lullaby.

Despite that, the wyvern started to fly erratically as shots of water came our way. "I will drown you asshole!" The spirit was relentless in her attacks to knock me into her grasp.

Seeing the angry spirit, I yelled back to her mage, "Lucy, put her away!" I yelled as Lucy did so right from the cliff with the other masters.

I pointed down to the water. "Gray, freeze it now!"

Gray seemed surprised for a second, but that was his only hesitation as he jumped down with a magical circle as he landed on the water, instantly freezing it as he touched it and quickly encasing every ounce of it with ice.

As the cold magic quickly went after the water, Lullaby tried to get out. However, he wasn't fast enough as his lower torso was caught mid freeze of the liquid while trying to get out.

"Good, we got him!" I knew he would try to get out of it! I was a bit afraid if he got out too quickly, but I guess I was right in that he was swept farther down than he wanted to be which slowed his time to get out.

I then pointed again at the frozen Lullaby. "Everyone, hit him with everything you've got!"

"Aye sir!" Natsu and Happy had both cried out with fervorous joy and were already way ahead of me, flying to the trapped demon and unleashing a powerful blow of fire after powerful blow of fire into the wood demon, finishing his combo by kicking up high into the sky.

Gray created an Ice Bazooka and blasted the demon mid air, sending him flying further into the air… where Erza already was holding a sword and wearing a black armor to unleash a powerful amount of slashes on Lullaby mid air.

I was let down by the wyvern nearby the others as it sped back into the fight. After Erza finished her final slash, the wyvern ascended up, the dove down right into the airborne Lullaby and made him crash into the frozen tsunami, cracking every corner of it into many pieces and crashing Lullaby into the ground like a high speed meteor. Out of the cloud of smoke, the wyvern flew back to us and landed along with everyone else to watch the dust settle.

A few seconds later, the cloud parted, revealing Lullaby, injured, cracked, and singed but standing tall and turning his pale, purple gaze towards us.

At this point, I heard Lucy's panicking voice. "K-Kain, do you have any other plans?!"

"I'm working on it." Okay, I was sorta hoping that would be enough to take it down. Come on brain, what else do you have!?

Lullaby took one step towards us—then fell into his knees with his hands propping him up.

Everyone else thought what I was about to say. Natsu, Erza, and Gray didn't hesitate to unload another barrage of long range attacks down on the weakened demon. The wyvern as well fired his own flame breath on to the demon. All attacks mixed together to form a powerful explosion mixing from the three magic and wyvern's breath.

This time, after the cloud passed, there was no sign of Lullaby anywhere.

"W-Where did he go!?" Natsu yelled.

I felt the air was much lighter than the heavier pressure from before, but a horrible feeling washed over me the more I looked for any sign of the demonic flute.

Much to my dismay, I didn't even see a fragment of his skin, let alone his flute form broken and weakened. "H-he must have escaped." I realized.

"What!? Come back here coward!" Natsu took one step forward then tripped with the grace of a bear trapped in a small room filled with fine China. He didn't get back up from that fall as easily as well.

I also was completely tired as I dropped to my knees and gasped for breath. "I wanna go home."

"You did well, all of you." Master Makarov walked to all of us after seemingly watching our fight.

Erza bowed her head in shame. "Forgive us master, Lullaby escaped."

"It could not defeat you, even when all of you were weakened fighting the whole day. There is no amount of words to show how proud I am of each and every one of you for today."

It was really nice of master to say that. But I really needed more than just that after what we went through. "Hey? By any chance, can we get a reward for this? I think there's a reward for Erigor's wanted sign if I recall and we had him tied up and brought here."

"Wait, that guy had a wanted poster? Sweet!" Natsu threw his fist out in cheer after getting back up from his fall.

Makarov nodded before looking towards the guild master's hall. "I'm sure you all deserve that and more for saving…"

He trailed off as we all heard a deafening sound coming to our side. It seemed like the building couldn't handle having three mages thrown through it a few times along with not being able to handle a random tsunami in dry land.

Needless to say that it could no longer support itself and collapsed into watery rubble.

"Our meeting hall!" The other guild masters cried out before looking in our direction. "Fairy Tail!"

Our master looked like he was about to die, but I just rolled my eyes.

"Hey, Mr. Wyvern? If you would please?" I closed my ears as the wyvern roared at the mad mob to silence them. I stood back up and cleared my throat.

"Excuse me, but if you have any complaints, please file to the Fairy Tail issues center."

"Who are you?" One random bloke asked.

"I am Fairy Tail's lawyer. And any complaints you have against my client can be and will be used against you if you try to sue us in court." I smirked darkly. "I just hope that you are all aware of the concept of counter suing. By any rights, we have the right to sue you all for negligence for not assisting us in our battle to protect you from Lullaby."

I then narrowed my eyes at them. "If any of you dare try to pin the blame on us, I will make sure all of you know how horrible the legal system can be abused by someone who knows it inside and out."

They all were silenced from their complaints.

I gave a fake smile and fixed my torn up jacket. "Then we have no problems at all!"

In my little show, I felt a familiar vice grip around my legs. Makraov was crying as he threw himself at my feet again. "You are Fairy Tail's greatest member!" He said through the sniffles and ignored the cries from Gray and Natsu.

It was then that I looked over to Kage. He seemed tense that I noticed him but I gave him a calm smile. I didn't quite forgive him, but I was pretty cool with him now.

All's well that ends well.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been one day after the Lullaby disaster. Kage and the others went to jail and Fairy Tail got rewarded for putting them all away. The complaints that were filled against us were weak and I was more than willing to expose all of their combined insurance actually covered attacks by hostile parties, which did include demon attacks, making them unable to file complaints about us.

Master keeps saying I was his best member ever just for getting rid of the complaints. While I appreciate it, I know it's only because of that he keeps saying it.

I was bought a new batch of clothes while my old ones were being repaired. Gray actually gave me some of his spare clothes from when he was a few years younger that seemed to fit me well enough.

It was a smaller, but black version of the long coat he 'wore' (I use that term loosely since it's almost always stripped off at least once a day) with a white T-shirt and black pants. I honestly felt cool.

He said it was only natural that he'd give me his clothes since when we first met I did the same for him. I had forgotten that little fact in actually until he bought it up.

However, there was obviously one other thing that changed dramatically from the Lullaby adventure.

… "I can't believe he's following me around."

And by 'he' I meant the giant red wyvern. It's still following me around even though I tried to set it free after helping us with Lullaby and Eisenwald. He's now currently in the back yard of the guild because he was unnerving the people in the town by waiting in the front.

While I was standing in front of the beast and staring at it, I looked behind my back because I heard something. That something was the guild master walking up to me and eyeing the wyvern.

"It seems grateful you freed it," Makarov noticed sagely. "but to follow you even here. Does it not have its own home?

I flushed because I was thinking of something else since it wouldn't go no matter how many times I've told it to leave. "Actually… I wanted to keep him."

Makarov looked at me and sighed. "Wyverns are not pets, Kain. They are powerful and wild creatures."

Well, he's not wrong, but this guy seems smart enough to not be a pet. I put my right hand out to rub the wyvern's nuzzle. "Counter point: you keep Natsu and Gray around."

The guild master paled as he did realize both were wild and powerful creatures.

Sometimes worse.

"I heard that, Kain!" Natsu yelled out from behind me from the open back doors of the guild.

"Do I hear you saying you want your debt quadrupled?!" It was a bit mean, but now I technically had leverage over all Fairy Tail members since I had access to their debts. I also took some accounting classes when I was in college so I did really know how to manage finances. God, the jokes were right. Lawyers were evil.

Natsu muttered something as he went back to eating.

"So can I keep him? Please? I never had a pet before and he looks behaved!" I begged the old man like a small kid.

Makarov seemed to sweat. It looked like he was having an internal struggle before he put his hand on his head and sighed. "Alright, you can keep him!"

"Whoo! Now, what to name you…" I looked over back to a pink haired mage. "Hey, Natsu! You're dad's name is Igneel right?"

"Yeah?" He said with a steak inside his mouth.

I nodded and turned back to the red wyvern. "I'll call you, Ignis! I think the name suits you perfectly."

Ignis seemed happy for that name and lowered his head down for me to pet him again.

"Oh wow, you seem happy." Lucy walked up to me while eyeing Ignis carefully.

"Of course I am. I'm feeling much better after that fiasco, and best of all I have both my arms back. No more magical object fusing itself to my skin anymore!"

*Chomp!*

…

…

Huh. Why was everyone looking shocked and stunned in my direction?

And why can't I feel my right arm?

…

Oh, Ignis was clamping down on my right arm while I was looking away.

…

"U-Uh, K-Kain?!"

…

"Yes, Lucy?"

"D-Do you n-notice that…"

"Lucy, I am very aware of what's happening to me right now."

"B-But why are you so calm!?"

"Hahaha. Calm? I AM PANICKING ON THE INSIDE!" I yelled out in horror as I tried to yank out my right arm.

Before anyone could get to me, Ignis let go, freeing my arm and making me fall to the ground.

"Ignis, what was that for—" I froze as I saw my right hand again.

It wasn't harmed at all: no puncture wounds despite Ignis' fangs, no blood, not even saliva was on it.

But there was now a strange object that was wrapped around my wrist that was as long as an arm brace.

"What?" I blurted out in shock.

Then the brace started to glow red as it suddenly shrunk and turned into some kind of strange looking wrist band with a red wyvern head on it that reminded me far too much about Power Ranger morphers.

"What?!"

I didn't know what it was, but I had to get it off me.

…

Why was it not coming off?!

"What's that on your arm?" Lucy asked as she looked at the red object, but suddenly her attitude changed when she suspiciously looked in the direction of where my face was. Her face looked of both pity and surprise.

"Hmm? What's going on here?" I heard Erza's voice. Erza!

"Hey, Erza!"

"Hello, Kain. How may I… why are you crying?"

Ignoring the fact I was probably crying, I raised my right hand where the strange object was attached to my wrist.

"Can you cut off my arms now?"


	6. Moon Blues Dues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So a few days pass after the whole Lullaby event, Ignis has been welcomed into the guild and Kain seems to enjoy having a partner/pet in a super cool wyvern. However, when Natsu plans to go to Galuna isle, his choice of teammates to fulfill his quest is met with a surprising twist coming from Kain no less.

"Faster, faster!" I heard the young Romeo Conbolt whoop in joy.

"Are you fastened tightly?" I yelled out to him, making the young boy chuckle and nod. "Well, you heard the boy, Ignis!"

The red wyvern growled lightly before diving down with amazing speed, I heard the young boy shriek in utter joy as the g force hit him. Ignis moved forward with expert grace as we then started moving quickly past the buildings all across Magnolia like an elaborate obstacle course, passing over their rivers, flying sideways on narrower streets, and even scaring some people who still weren't used to the daily flights I've been practicing with Ignis these past two weeks.

Can I just say it is awesome having a wyvern as a partner? (Let's be honest, if anyone was the pet in this relationship it would be turned to me in less than a heartbeat.)

Ignis is literally the best, he goes off to get his own food hunting the wild life in the early morning and late night, and he washes himself by diving into the sea to catch more fish for him to eat. He's basically already house trained and here and I do spoil him with left over butcher goods sometimes because he's surprisingly docile.

It's like I get all of the perks and none of the hassle!

"This. Is. AWESOME!" The black haired kid cried out as our lap around Magnolia was drawing to a close as we ended up back at Fairy Tail's backyard near a rather moderately large stable made just for Ignis by Fairy Tail's mages. "Let's do it again!"

"On no you don't!" We all looked over to a worried Macao Conbolt running hurriedly to us. "Kain, you said that you would take this carefully!"

I blinked as I processed the words. Before we had left, the father of Romeo had indeed warned us to be careful. He must have seen us flying at such speeds and assumed that we weren't. "Yeah, I did. I made sure Romeo was fastened on to Ignis' saddle—the one everyone pitched in to make so he could hold more people without bothering his flying—then I let him go around half of Ignis' top speed."

"That was half!?" the young mage snapped his head back at me.

I continued even after the young aspiring mage's comment. "But I do get what you were saying, Macao. I really did make sure Romeo was safe, but I knew it would also be fun if he got some taste of ridding a high speed wyvern. I'm sorry that I misunderstood you somewhat."

Romeo seemed to pout somewhat. "Dad, what are you doing? Kain and Ignis did what you said, don't be so hard on them!"

I ended up petting the boy's head. "It's really alright Romeo. Come on, you've got to get ready for school. I have work to prepare for."

Eventually he did relent and got off, before saying goodbye to us. I dropped off Ignis and walked towards Macao.

"I really thought it would be alright."

The father of the young boy looked away and rubbed his head as he sighed. "No, I was too hard on you. You did listen to what I said and you just wanted Romeo to enjoy his first ride."

I felt myself soften after hearing something like that. "Macao, it's alright. I know what it's like to have a dad say something mean when all he cares about is their child's safety. My dad was a lot like that, I just didn't really appreciate it now that I'm away."

The father sighed again as he heard that and turned to me with an honest look. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"No, really. I should be thanking you. I really do need to be more active in finding a way back home." I waved good bye to Ignis as I motioned the older man back into the guild. "Come on, I'll treat you to a free non-alcoholic drink."

He seemed to raise his brow as he asked optimistically, "Care to make that non-non-alcoholic?"

"Macao, it's morning. Don't push it."

I noticed the older man roll his eyes. "Yeesh. Fine, I guess I've grown to like the new smoothies you and Mirajane added to the bar. I want two of those."

"I'll be sure to buy a third for Romeo before you bring him to school."

"Thanks. By the way, how's that…" I know what he was trying to say as I brought up my right arm to reveal the wyvern brace still stuck to my arm.

"It's still a mystery. Though I haven't really had time to check what the master said about it until today."

Ugh, just remembering what went down last week is giving me a headache.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It began after Erza unfortunately denied trying to cut my arm off. It now later occurs to me that I am one of the few people in the world (or cosmos?) who considers his arm not being cut off a bad thing.

After calming down, I was brought back into the guild where everyone gathered around to stare at my arm as if it were a second head.

"So what is that?" Natsu poked it several times as if it was some kind of animal. "It looks like a gear of some kind."

Erza added her own two cents into it. "I can sense something off about it. I want to say it feels like magic, but the word doesn't feel right." At the time, I did not like how she said those words.

"Where did master go?" Gray looked back to the second floor. "I know he told us to wait, but what's he doing up there?"

As if on cue, the master jumped down from the second floor and into the table we were all crowding around.

He sighed as he put down a piece of paper. "This is why I had a strange feeling from seeing it."

Everyone seemed to gasp as they saw some kind of 100 symbol stamp on the really old piece of paper.

Mirajane looked on with absolute fear seeing the picture. "Master, are you serious!?"

Her only response was the master simply nodding. Everyone else began to murmur and pale while I was still confused as all heck.

"I would very much like context here please!" I shouted out loud to snap everyone out of their stupor.

Makarov looked at me before handing me the piece of paper. "We talked about it briefly while going over some of Erza's reports, but there are what's known as S-class missions. Do you remember what I said about those?"

I nodded, recalling that only those given the rank of S-Class could take expensive and very dangerous quests. Erza and four others in Fairy Tail could take this quest.

"There are quests even above those: the SS-class, the one year quests, decade quests, and the very top of them all: one hundred year quests. These quests are so dangerous not even I and the other Wizard Saints want to take them."

At that last one I looked down at the paper he put down. It didn't take me long to figure out that the one hundred logo I was staring at was non-other than something that even the top wizards of Fiore would have trouble dealing with.

I gulped and reached for the paper, as I did the logo changed into a picture of five shadowy objects and a large description at the bottom.

Huh? The date… it's 222X?! This has been a job request for almost five hundred years!?

Seeing everyone around move closer to me, I coughed to clear my throat and began reading aloud, "To any who hear this message, listen to my plea. Legend tells of a time when the planet was young, a powerful entity fell from the stars and into our world. This entity was dying, but gave his powers to five powerful warriors who had ventured to his grave. The five were said to gained powers that could bend continents individually, but together held the potential to destroy the entire planet. Countless kingdoms of old came together to stop these maddening warriors. The battle was bloody and long, but the five warriors were defeated.

However, while the warriors themselves were defeated, their powers all crystallized into strange objects that allowed anyone to use their might. These five items have caused devastation and chaos wherever they go. Yet time can sweep even the greatest of horrors as their legend faded into existence.

Many assumed this to be a simple tale, until one day on the year 98X—"

I paused from reading for a second. "Hold up a second, this was a thing even before the posted date of this quest?!"

"Hey, keep reading!" "Yeah, it was getting good!"

I rolled my eyes before continuing the tale. "On the year 98X, one man wielding a black colored device described in legends… single handedly decimated the small kingdom of Zavkx."

"The kingdom of Zavkx… is half the size of Fiore. Or was in this case." Makarov added to give us all an idea of what was happening.

To think one of these had the potential to decimate a small country. No wonder this was beyond S-class. If any of those were real, that would mean that would mean one entire country would be endanger if just one of those were found again.

The entire guild was silent. I swallowed hard as I continued to read. "The warrior disappeared, but now it is believed that these five objects exist and have been scattered all through the world. To those willing to take this arduous task, know that you must find all five of these horrible artifacts known to drive men insane and either destroy or seal them away for good. Be warned: they are small, but by now they are scattered all across the planet with no clue how to find them."

I stopped reading as I turned towards the device on my arms.

"Okay, Erza, cut my arm off."

"Not that again!" Lucy cried out as everyone blanched at how causally I said that.

Erza shook her head to my disappointment before I turned towards our celestial mage. "Lucy, the last magical item to attach myself in my arms was an ancient demon, an ancient demon that became smarter after possessing me if I may remind you! Now it's a super ancient mystical weapon! I am not taking this chance!"

"While it is true this is part of a hundred year quest," Makarov started, making everyone look to him. "The fact remains is that this is only a theory I have. It may just be a random thing that has no relation to it whatsoever."

I sighed. "I really hope it is. The last thing I need is going more insane than I already am."

Mirajane looked down on their leader. "So master, what do we do now?"

"Hmm, I should probably tell the council. But even then they probably don't know what to do. This quest was posted on a country on the opposite side of the planet, Gorandor, over five hundred years ago and has spread out ever since. No one knows how to approach with updating a quest that's been around for a long time as the council has."

"That's really weird, but if it really is one of these five weapons, what was it doing in Ignis' stomach?" Macao was the one who asked this.

I rubbed my head. "I really don't want to think about it."

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found myself rubbing my head again even after remembering that.

After the event, I tried to study the thing. I did everything, try to open it up—only to break every tool that tried to open it; I tried to get it to work and see if it was like an actual Morpher from Power Rangers and while there was a button, nothing seemed to activate it, making it nothing more than some fancy bracelet; and lastly I even tried asking Ignis about it, but beside a few head-tilting looks like a confused newborn dog, I got absolutely nothing.

"Hey you remember when Erza and Natsu had their fight right after that?" Macao half laughed as he said this. I could tell he was trying to change the topic from something else that didn't bother me but his choices weren't exactly the best.

"Yeah, that didn't really help me considering I tried to be Erza's lawyer to put up some defense." I then narrowed my eyes on the mage with a five o clock shadow. "I seem to recall you allowing Natsu to make a fool out of ourselves."

And by fool, I mean storm the council room, break near everything within ten feet of him, and claim he was Erza while dressed in the most foolish get up imaginable. It was horrific. Funny if you weren't in our situation, but horrific. Because I tried to defend Erza legally, I was thrown into the brig with them.

The older mage scratched his chin nervously at my glare. "I-I owed him a favor."

You choose then to repay it?! Luckily, I said nothing more about that.

"I was put in magic jail because of that." There were luckily no dementors in there but still. "Magic. Jail. And I wasn't even a mage!"

The fire mage nervously laughed. "At least you got out?"

"Yeah, at least." Not even a month in and I went into this world's jail. That has got to be some kind of record if we're talking about people sent into different worlds. That does make me wonder if they are real if it happened to me?

As we got back in and ordered some drinks, I heard someone saying Natsu and Lucy were returning from a job. Nervously, I got up and headed towards my room.

"I'm going to go pack up for my new job. I'll see you later tonight, boss!" I told Mirajane as I left.

"Ah wait, Kain!"

I didn't really want to wait for her and went ahead.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Macao watched as Kain left for his room at the back before Natsu came in, arguing with Gray.

"Is Kain still avoiding Natsu?" The fire mage asked. "I thought Natsu must have scared the poor kid off, but nothing like this."

The white haired beauty sighed. "Natsu's been in a slump after noticing Kain's been avoiding him a few days in. Whenever he and Happy try to bring him on a quest, Kain has been making excuses in not going and taking new simpler jobs around Magnolia to escape talking for too long with Natsu."

"What? But Kain seems like a nice guy, I'm sure he would forgive Natsu."

Mirajane shook her head. "I don't think it's Natsu that's the problem. Ever since the Lullaby Incident, Kain's been sluggish at almost everything he does. I'm getting worried about him too."

There was a gasp as both Macao and Mirajane looked towards their right to see Makarov finishing a drink. "It's rude to gossip about your own friends."

"Ahh, right sorry master," Macao admitted nervously. But as he looked back, he saw Natsu and Gray still fighting. The sight made him worry about something else. "But, do you know what's with Kain?"

The old man paused before he relaxed and placed a hand on his head. "The poor boy seems to be blaming himself for Lullaby escaping."

"What? No way! That's not his fault!"

Makarov looked back to Macao. "What do you think I've tried to say to him? But then he fears whatever horror Lullaby is causing out there right now, it'll be on his hands." The master placed a hand on his head. "Just thinking about the conversation gives me a headache. I tried to talk him out of it, but I had forgotten he was our lawyer. I ended up not being able to get to him that night."

"I… I didn't know Lullaby has still been bothering Kain." The older fire mage seemed to worry at the thought.

"I'm sure it'll end soon. Though it might take a push here and there." Makarov then had a look of sudden realization wash over him. He then looked over to Mirajane. "That reminds me, what job has he taken today to get out of Fairy Tail?"

"He said it was charity work…" Then, the entire guild heard the sound of Ignis taking off and leaving the guild, meaning Kain was more than likely leaving already.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kageyama flinched as he walked into the corridor. His trail was coming up and to be honest, the charges stacked against him were looking bad. I mean, it looked not as bad as he was making it out to be. Considering all he did, he should be glad he was eventually going to get out in a reasonable time.

Still, he wanted to be selfish and not get the maximum sentence of two years in prison.

However, who called him out of his cell? And why now when he was still worrying over a lawyer to get?

When he was led into a room, his eyes widened. "What? No way…"

Sitting down on the table was none other than Kain Reynolds wearing a suit and a smile on his face.

"Whassup?" Out of everything, Kageyama was not expecting such a relaxed statement coming from someone he beat to near death.

"K-Kain!?"

The brunette wearing a suit relaxed into his seat and offered Kage to sit across from him. "Do you know any other Kain? If so, please tell me. I always thought it was fun to meet people with the same name."

Kage, slowly and in disbelief, sat down and stared. "H-How? Why are you here?"

The brown haired boy laughed. "I'm the lawyer that volunteered for your case. Apparently, it's easier to become a lawyer in this world than it is in mine. And I'm here to shorten your sentence."

The previously dark mage could not believe it. "What!? Y-You're helping me?!" After everything he did to him, heck after that sucker punch to his nose even! He still was going to help him?

"Well for one, I was given a second chance, so it's only fair to make sure you do well with yours too. Secondly, this is a great way to earn more money while not having to take dangerous missions all the time." The young man listed.

Kage seemed to pause for a second. He finally got his bearings straight after getting over the initial shock to notice something was off.

"There's a third reason, isn't there? Why else would we be in a sound proof room?" he spoke as he noticed where they were.

"Well, lawyers and their clients are allowed privacy. It's in the rules I've learned." But then Kain's smile lessened. "But you are right. There is another reason I thought I could do besides helping you."

With a more serious tone, Kain asked, "Where did you guys get the wyvern?"

The former dark guild mage blinked. He certainly wasn't expecting that question. "That creature? Why?"

Kain explained, "It grew to like me and follows me around. But most wyverns are found in high mountains or low valleys. How did Eisenwald come across him?"

The shadow mage seemed to absorb that. There was obviously something else, but he wasn't in currently the right ground to question someone trying to help him. "We didn't. We bought from another dark guild: Preator Hunters."

"That guild… they're wanted for hunting endangered species aren't they?" Kain recalled seeing them briefly among the wanted posters when he was collecting Erigor's reward.

Kageyama nodded. "They had caught the beast somewhere they didn't usually find wyverns in and thought to enslave it. No matter what they did, it always resisted and they grew tired of trying to break it. We thought we could break it in for them, so we bought him. But why are you curious about it?"

"Something really weird happened." Kain responded simply.

"Does it have something to do with that weird thing attached to your wrist?" Despite Kain wearing long sleeves to hide it, Kage did notice the red device.

Seeing no choice but to tell the truth, Kain admitted, "Yeah, it won't come off no matter how hard I pull."

Kage was a bit surprise he would answer honestly, but then again, he had a hard time reading the younger man in front of him. "I don't know what that is. So other than what I told you, I don't know a thing. Preator Hunters are a mobile dark guild. I still think Eisenwald is more powerful, but almost no one knows where they're going to be."

"Thanks anyway. Now, let's talk about your case." Kain took out a folder as he began with what he was really here for.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After reviewing Kage's case, I flew back to the guild.

As I walked in through the back door, I was greeted by Lucy.

"Hey Kain! Why are you wearing a suit?"

"I'm applying to be an official lawyer here in this world. It's so much easier than my world and the rules are a lot more simpler." I answered politely.

"I see." She said as she looked behind her.

My eyes instinctively narrowed. "You're waiting for Natsu, aren't you?" I saw her flinch, but not only her, but some other people as well. "Look guys, I don't hate Natsu. I just… I just don't want to go on quests anymore."

"Why not?"

As I looked around, I noticed not only Lucy but the others also seemed to be paying a lot of attention to me.

My eyes fell on Macao who quickly broke eye contact with me to stare at an old musty wall that caught his attention so greatly. God dang it, he let it slip didn't he?

I opened my mouth.

"I feel sleepy."

But then I closed it as we all looked to Makarov who was the one who had just said that.

I was about to ask what he meant before Mirajane suddenly fell to the ground asleep, followed by Lucy, then everyone. I even spotted Natsu in the distance falling asleep as well as he just came in.

Makarov then looked over to me. "How curious, it doesn't affect you at all."

Curious, I obviously asked. "What do you mean?"

"He's here." Following Master's gaze, I looked over to see a man covered completely in heavy clothing to the point I couldn't even see his eyes. Though, as he walked straight through the quest board to get one job, he seemed to glance towards me.

I felt a chill in my bones in what felt like days, but as one second passed, he looked back to Master Makarov before the small old man had asked him to lift the sleeping spell.

As he left, everyone but Natsu seemed to get back up from slumber.

"Aww man, was that Mystogan?" I heard Droy speak up about that along with several others as they slowly got back up.

Before I could ask who the heck that was, I overheard Gray and Elfman explain to Lucy who the man was. His name was Mystogan, and I do remember some of his job files that Makarov helped me through. Man, the guy is just as mysterious in person as he is in the reports.

I also heard something about him being called one of Fairy Tail's strongest mage, but I heard from Makarov that Gildarts Clive was considered their strongest. Then again, he left for a hundred year quest that looked harder than the one my armlet was from.

Then, I heard the voice of someone else. Laxus Dreyar, the grandson of the master. I've seen his files and he is quite the powerhouse. It's rather amazing to finally meet the guy.

Unfortunately, the guy's kind of a dick with how he's showing himself off and calling everyone weak.

Natsu got up from hearing the man's voice and quickly challenged him to a fight. Unfortunately, he was shot down by master for trying to head towards the second floor.

I quickly realized that everyone was no longer paying attention to me at this moment. I then snuck away and closed the door behind me before I heard someone ask where I had slipped into.

I felt bad again for avoiding Natsu.

God, I'm a coward.

Fighting the thoughts away, I just fell into my bed and in no time at all, I fell asleep…

"Kain! Kain! Wake up!"

My eyes snapped open as I reached for a small lamp lacrima near my bed. As the light opened, I saw Natsu and happy staring excitedly at me while holding up a job request with an obvious S-class marking on it.

I glanced over to my door, seeing that it was wide open. Apparently, I did not lock the door behind me before entering here.

Whatever time it is right now is too early and-slash-or late for this.

"Hey Kain! We got a S-class mission!" Oh no. I wasn't dreaming. "We should take it with Lucy and show Gramps we can totally take one no problem!"

It was the moment I was dreading. Looking at that S-class mark made me think of a skull with cross bones. "I-I can't."

"Aww come on, why not? You haven't been going to any of the other jobs I tried to ask you on."

Before Happy could agree I blurted out. "Natsu, I can't go. Not anymore."

"Huh?" That surprised both of them. "Why not?"

I sat up from the bed and inhaled deeply. "Natsu, I almost died during the Lullaby quest. If the S-Class quest is at least just as dangerous, I don't think I should go…"

"What? What makes you think that?"

I looked at him hard before I noticed the pink haired mage was unusually nervous. "I don't have any magic, Natsu. Even when I prepared, I still ended up being a burden then an asset. I'll just get in the way."

"Hell no! You weren't in the way at all! Lullaby was annoying, but you were the one who came up with a plan to get us to defeat him!" Happy instantly agreed with Natsu.

Even though his voice was getting louder, I did notice the outside looked dark. It must have been when the guild was closed that he snuck back in to get me.

"Yeah, but that was after I had messed up in the first place." I countered as I noticed him getting angrier.

"You don't know that! He could have escaped even if you weren't there!" It didn't take much to figure at this rate he would probably drag me along with him whether I liked it or not.

Before he could, I just decided to say what I've really been fearing. "Natsu, I… I can't fight."

"So?!"

"I might die."

Instantly, both of them seemed to be silent after hearing that.

"I was lucky all throughout our adventures. Even in the Lullaby one, I was close to dying, but by stupid luck I was kept alive by Lullaby. Natsu, I really do appreciate everything you've done for me, but it think it's best if I just stay and do desk jobs here in the guild. These adventures are getting more and more dangerous, and eventually… I just feel like I'll die if this rate keeps up."

I looked back up after my speech. Natsu looked like he wanted to argue, but it was obvious the memory of me being near death was a very good staple to my argument.

"I won't tell Master you stole the S-class quest. I really do hope you succeed though."

I went back to bed. Half of me expected Natsu to ignore me and bring me along after all he was the kind of person to believe in the best in people. Maybe he would think by bringing me along, it would make me realize that I did belong here.

"Come on, Happy, let's go."

…

By the sound of the door closing behind me, I guess I was wrong.

…

I should be happy that I'm not going on quests anymore.

…

So why don't I feel any better?

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning afterward felt like a blur. I didn't even seem fazed when Gray offered to bring back Natsu and Lucy.

However, when he left, I felt other eyes go towards me. I even overheard rumors in why I wasn't going with them.

"Hahaha!" I turned my gaze up to Laxus Dreyar laughing as he seemingly was looking at me. "This kid here gets it! The weak should know their place!"

"Laxus!" Mirajane snapped darkly when he tried to talk to me.

However, I looked back at him and stared.

"Oh what? What can you do? Stare at me to death?" He gave a cocky smile as he looked back at me.

I seemed to have caught everyone's attention as everyone noticed how I seemingly glared back at Laxus. Yet, I wasn't really bothered by him insulting me. In fact, I was sad considering what little I heard from master when I went over his cases.

"You of all people should understand what it means to be weak."

In less than a second before people could even gasp, Laxus appeared in front of me in a flash of lightning. Words like anger and wrath could not describe the look on his face at that moment.

"What did you just say!?" He barked right in front of me. The air around him was actually popping and I saw traces of electricity dancing around him as he towered over me.

"Laxus!"

Makarov barked with darker undertone that made the blonde S-class mage relent. He begrudgingly turned back to his grandpa before he looked back at me.

It was strange. Last night I feared for my life and I just said no to a call to adventure that could potentially kill me. Yet here I was messing with someone who could kill me in an instant, but I felt nothing. Not even anger, or hatred towards someone who laughed and belittled me.

Laxus still glared at me angrily, gritting his teeth. "You're not worth it."

As he started walking away from me, I felt the need to say something else. "I don't think you're as mean as you pretend to be."

Again, my mouth had silenced the entire guild as Laxus stopped walking and looked back to me with something like an unreadable face.

I shrugged my shoulders. "To me, you seem a lot nicer than you let on."

"Nice?" He scoffed and turned away. "There is no room for nice in the strongest guild."

"I thought the strongest make the rules. Wouldn't strong people be able to do anything they want without thinking what others say about them?" I automatically pointed out.

Laxus started moving back towards the second stairs, seemingly not responding to my last comment. "God, you're more annoying than Natsu. Shut up, will you?"

Laxus and Makarov shared a look as the S-class mage stood in front of the stairs.

"You told him?" Rather than a question, he just sounded surprised.

"The boy is our lawyer. He gets a hold of all job request reports from all our members. I help answer some of his questions and you came up some times." He took a drink. "It's not my fault he picks up things faster than most people in this guild."

Laxus seemed to grunt at the passive answer of his grandfather and went up.

I sighed as I went back to sweeping the floors. It took a while, but everyone seemed to go back to normal. But I felt every now and then people were looking at me weirdly. No doubt I was now the topic for gossip.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mirajane walked over to Master Makarov. "Sir, it think it's getting worse."

"I don't know. Laxus did need a good slap in the head. It would make sense that Kain would win in a battle of words and wit though…"

"Master," Mirajane folded her hands. "you know what I mean."

The small Wizard Saint grunted. "Bah. I hate seeing people down too much. … I heard that Erza is coming back later today."

Mirajane seemed to light up at the thought. "Do you think…?"

"He should have one more chance. Otherwise, this might get messy fast." To fight a coming headache, Makarov continued to drink.

It didn't help at all. He just now was having a headache even while drunk.

As the day went on, I left to go and help Kage for his court hearing. However, when I came back with Ignis, I was greeted by Erza of all people who seemed to return from another quest.

"Kain."

"Hello, Erza. How are you?" I gave a polite smile as I landed with Ignis.

She nodded at me. "You need to come with me to bring back Natsu, Lucy, and Happy." The red haired woman… wait a second.

"What?" I looked confused before I looked back to see master Makarov and Mirajane looking at me from the back door.

Did they have something to do with this?

"Gray hasn't returned with Natsu yet. At this rate, all three of them are now at Galuna Island and the fastest way there would be for you to fly me there with Ignis." She stated plainly.

I couldn't really see myself saying no to Erza, so I sighed. "Sure, just let me change and I'll be out in five to ten minutes."

"Very well. Do hurry."

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The flight would still take a while from the guild to Galuna, according to the map. That left a very quiet and awkward flight period as I flew Ignis over to the island where Natsu left.

… "Did… Master Makarov ask you to bring me?"

After a second, she answered. "Of course; Ignis listens to you most of all, so I was told to use both of you to get to Natsu and the others. I was told also that you should try to convince them to return before I stepped in."

She paused as she looked at me. "But that was not the only reason."

Here it comes.

"I've been told you've been feeling guilty since the Lullaby incident."

God. That's one way to put it. "On one hand yes. But I'm mostly terrified now. I guess I'm just… too afraid to die since I don't have any magic to defend myself."

"Magic doesn't define your worth." Erza looked out in the distance as she said that. She seemed to have the same look Mirajane once had when she spoke about past tragedies. It was vacant and distant. "You can do great things even without it: the fact you helped us with Lullaby strengthens this fact. Just because you cannot fight, doesn't mean in any way possible that you mean less than anyone in the guild."

"I don't really feel like that—ow!" I felt my head sting as something metal hit me hard on the head.

"Apologizes, you're being stupid." She said simply.

Even rubbing my head, I didn't really feel better. "I feel stupid too, but I don't feel any better about it."

"You really shouldn't be saying such things. Do you really think that the guild allowed you to join because you had magic?"

"Well, no…" I deflated as I did realize that. I was welcomed to the guild even with my bizarre circumstances.

"Exactly, if anything, you deserve that crest in your arm for everything that you did do." That made me turn back to her with surprise before Erza started talking. "You helped an utter stranger save a village; you stopped dozens of women from being kidnapped; you helped a man finally honor his father's legacy; you stood up to a mad man even without powers, and not only inspired others, but gave them the courage to fight back and help you. And lastly, I will not stop admitting that we only won against Lullaby thanks to your quick thinking. Our guild is proud to have someone with a strong sense of compassion regardless of their magical ability."

I had forgotten about all the good I had done. It was really hard to remember that when I was focusing only on the bad.

I then felt Erza's hand on my head again, but not as a punch, but as a light pat on the head. "I actually envy you in many ways. Even while captured, injured, and without magic… you inspired people all by yourself and changed them even after fighting. You are very, very strong in that regard." There was something in her voice. It almost sounded like envy and… nostalgia? I had the feeling that I might have reminded her of someone she knew before Fairy Tail, but I decided not to pry.

The kind words were… really touching. I felt like blood was rushing to my cheeks as she said that.

"Are you sure though, it's that amazing? I mean, what is that compared to shooting fire, ice, or having an arsenal of powerful weapons?"

"Our magic is a tool. What you have: courage and kindness, makes you a more important than a mage who doesn't have those." She smiled as she patted the back of the flying wyvern. "Ignis here is proof that there is more to you than just magic."

The wyvern roared proudly that echoed through the night sky in response to that.

Erza gave a small chuckle at the sound. "See? Ignis feels the same as I."

"… Thanks…" As her words settled, I felt a lot better. "I really was being stupid, wasn't I?"

I felt Erza rubbing my hair messily as if I was something like a little brother. "It's alright. Our guild is full of idiots in the first place."

Man, I guess I really was being stupid. I owe Natsu an apology then.

I looked up as Ignis started to growl. In the distance, we saw an island as the sun was starting to set.

Even though I felt better, a small part of me was afraid still.

How long can I keep myself from dying in such a dangerous place?

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deleted Scene #1.

(Context: I actually did try to write out the part where Erza and Natsu's first fight was interrupted, but thinking it over, I felt like I wasn't really adding much to that story at all and decided to scrap it. When I reedited this chapter, I just skimmed over it completely since it was just basically the same as the anime and manga with only Kain being there. However, there was at least one part of the old work that I did think was worth showing to you guys since this chapter was a little somber.)

(It begins while Kain and Erza are waiting for the S-class mage's sentence.)

Later on, as we went into the courtroom after a strange meeting with one of the council members, I finally got what they were doing and sighed in relief.

It looked like it was just going to be a staged arrest, nothing really worth worrying over. The council was just doing something official so these guys wouldn't lose face. I'd have to contact everyone later to tell them about this.

But it's good to see I was worrying for nothing.

BOOM!

Why was there and explosion behind Erza? Why was Natsu here wearing a fake Erza costume? Why was he destroying the place?!

…

Why do I suddenly have the urge to spill blood?

Everyone stared in befuddlement as Natsu started throwing fire blasts claiming he was the one who did everything wrong. However, they all then noticed Erza's lawyer, Kain Reynolds, walk up to the imposter with a rather uncanny and forced looking smile on his face.

"Erza?" He emphasized this word carefully as the faker suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Could you look there for a second?" He pointed to nothing in particular.

"Huh? What are you talking about KaARRKK!?"

In one motion, the young man had kicked the back of one of Natsu's knees, causing him to bend backward so that Kain could grab the guy by the neck and put him into a choke hold. Natsu started coughing and was having a surprising amount of trouble getting out of said hold by the slightly smaller boy.

"Shhhhhhhh." Everyone started to feel a cold chill from the brown haired young man as he whispered like the wind flying through hollow dead trees on a dark night. "Go to sleep, Natsu."

"…Kain?" Erza coughed to get his attention.

When Kain turned around, the magic council saw how his right eye lid was twitching furiously and how the veins in his eyes were vivid and noticeable.

"Please let him go."

"Do I have too? I'm sure he's close to losing consciousness." He pulled harder, making Natsu's trashing much slower and his gasps much louder.

Erza sighed and bowed to the courtroom. "I am so sorry for this."

After a second of stunned silence, minus Natsu's attempt and threats to kick Kain's butt for this, they ordered Fairy Tail to be locked up.

(End of Scene.)

(Context: As funny, as I thought this was, I did later try to explain that while Kain was 'broken' he doesn't angrily rage like Natsu. His revenge and anger is cold, calculating, and sometimes maniacal. Even though Natsu is far stronger than Kain, I explained in the first draft that he could do it because he made sure to aim for pressure points since he subconsciously recalled that in this version of the Daybreak Mission, Master Zash aimed for Natsu's lungs and that translated that even someone like Natsu is vulnerable to the right pressure hits. The second reason, and one that is more likely: Kain was still healing from the Lullaby Mission and while Natsu doesn't really hold back, he doesn't want to purposely injure friends who can't fight back. So if you read this, those are the reasons why Kain could do those things.)

(Any who, thanks for reading. The Deliora Arc here is shortened a bit, but thankfully right after is the first attempt at an Original Arc after a small filler chapter. I thank you all for taking your time to read this and do support this story with favorites and likes.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> {Author Notes.}
> 
> Hey guys. Super Sorry for not posting so long, I forgot about this site for a while. In Fanfcition, this story is already 40 plus chapters, so if it makes you feel better, you guys can check there if you're not going to be patient with my upload speed on this one.
> 
> A small chapter dedicated to character growth. Sorry if it's not plot or joke heavy like some other chapters.
> 
> I thought it would be a good idea to show some character development for Kain since he really doesn't have any magic.
> 
> As fun as people believe it to be to go to Fairy Tail, it's surprisingly dangerous for any normal human to be in. Even Lucy is potentially superhuman with her durability: remember episode one? I'm sure that tsunami would have broken any normal person's bones or killed them by the pressure or made them drown.
> 
> Yet not even one of the goons died. All of them were just shaken up by a tsunami.
> 
> Kain is a lot like a normal person. Because of this, him dying is really, really easy without powers or magic of some kind. (I mean think about it: there really are so many things that can easily kill a guy like Kain thrice over.)
> 
> But what I tried to make it so that Kain has a lot of the same old traits we love to see in heroes: empathy for others and heroic bravery. He just sometimes doesn't let something like being powerless get in the way of doing the right thing. (though at the rate things are going, being powerless might be the end for him.)
> 
> Anyway, thank you all for taking your time to read, follow, and favorite this story. It feeds my ego even though it means nothing in my social or economic life. #TotallyALoser.


	7. Dawn of a new enemy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erza, Kain, and Ignis arrive in Galuna isle where, to no one's surprise, chaos broke loose. Gray's old friend is attempting to revive another demon of Zeref and it's up to the 'strongest' team of Fairy Tail to take on the job before bringing back Natsu and the others. Yet complications arise when an unknown factor enters into the fray changing the course of not just the mission, but perhaps something towards the grand scheme of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might as well put two here to somehow make up for not posting this on this site in like forever. Posting the other 40 chapters is going to be kinda hard translating them to and from.

I don't know why there was a giant mouse in a dress trying to attack Lucy. Damn it magic, I never not get surprised at how bizarre these situations become.

But it was super cool to have Ignis swoop down and pin down the giant rodent into the sand like Randy Orton, famous wrestler and internet meme, who was known for out of nowhere knock outs.

Lucy seemed like she was just in a heavy fight with that other girl since it looked like she was roughed up a bunch. As she saw me and Ignis, a wide smile appeared on her face as she ran up to us.

"Kain! Ignis! Man, am I glad to see both of you here!"

I laughed nervously since during the dive… someone jumped off. "Great to see you too, Lucy. But umm? I suggest you come back to the guild with us before I resort to Plan E, please?"

The celestial mage seemed surprised at that before realization hit her. She must have realized I was here to bring her back. However, I could tell that her brain started to crank; while I alone had the highest chance of convincing everyone to come back, I didn't have any way to force everyone to come with me and Ignis if they refused. I'm assuming in her mind, the only possible way for Makarov to send me here to get everyone back was if there was someone else with me who was stronger than Natsu.

Then the look on her face seemed to pale when she figured out that 'Plan E' was standing right behind her.

"Lucy," hot damn that's one scary glare. Erza is very different from that tender moment I saw a while ago. "I assume you know why Kain, Ignis, and I are here."

The blonde mage was doing her best impression of her shaky Plue as she turned back with all the speed of a broken stop light that could only go green and red.

"To take us back?" That's the general statement yes. "Promise you won't hurt me?" That last sentence echoed in the open a few times as Erza remained silent.

The only other sound in the beach was Ignis landing down without anything seemingly bothering him.

Well that, and the fact that after how pathetic that last echo sounded, I spoke up. "Yeah… that's going to depend on you." Out of all the times I wished I was a mage since I got here, I now don't want to be Lucy and-slash-or Natsu.

It was then I looked up to see Happy flying towards us in the distance. "Lucy, I was worried for you a second there. Oh Kain!? You're here now!" The cat was much like his namesake. It appeared he was overjoyed to see me just like Lucy was. However, just like Lucy, he then tilted his head just a little to the right to notice there was someone else here.

To give the little guy some credit, he lasted ten seconds before Erza caught him.

Even though half of our job was already done, Lucy seemed desperate as she spoke to Erza and practically begged for them to stay even though they disobeyed the rules. She even told us what had happened, but despite me feeling bad for these people, Erza was adamant in bringing them all home.

"K-Kain, say something!" It seemed like I was their last hope in convincing Erza to not bring them back yet.

While Erza was indeed scary and at this point near impossible to talk out of her determined state, I did feel for Lucy's plight with those people. Maybe we could just finish the quest while 'in the process' of getting Natsu and the others back.

"Please tell me you aren't actually considering what they said." The red haired woman strictly corrected. "We are to bring them back to the guild, no questions asked."

"True, but we can't leave yet without Natsu and Gray, so let's find them first." I was careful not to talk about anything else since there was a possibility to still convince her out of leaving everyone here to fend for themselves when Lucy and the others have already done so much.

It took us a while, but Lucy was able to guide us towards this town of demons or rather where they had set up since their town was currently destroyed. We had found out that Gray was being cared for and he would wake up probably in the morning.

However, this meant that Lucy and Happy had the unfortunate circumstance of being tied up by Erza and told to stay in that state through the night due to disobeying guild rules. I was told to watch over them to ensure they wouldn't escape while Erza searched around nearby for any sign of Natsu.

I had a feeling that facing the S-class mage was the only thing keeping them tied in a rope. I for sure couldn't get them to stay like that if I tried.

"Kain, help us!" Happy was bawling his eyes out as he begged for any way out of this. "I was forced to go: it was all Lucy's idea."

"No it wasn't! Stop trying to sell us out to save yourself!" Lucy hysterically yelled as Happy was still crying. However, she then looked over to me. "Hey, Kain? Why didn't you come with us? I noticed Natsu was down when I asked about you coming along."

I felt shame after hearing that. "He was that upset about it? I guess I do owe him an apology and a few free meals for that." I looked over to Lucy. "I didn't want to go because I was afraid, Lucy. I'm not even a real Fairy Tail mage, so something like an S-class mission that could kill even mages easily… would no doubt put me in far more harm than the Lullaby event. Unlike now, I at least have Ignis to help me, but other than him and a few party favors I have… I don't contribute much."

"That's not true!" Lucy and Happy perked up.

"Yeah, I know." I quickly responded before either could repeat what Erza said to me. "But while I contribute, it's never really in a direct fight. I can be killed so easily here that I'm just afraid that I might die or just drag you down when it comes to these dangerous adventures, and I don't want that. I believe you guys don't want me in harm's way as well."

We were all silent after that.

"Hey, that doesn't mean that if you guys are in trouble, I won't hesitate to help you in any way that I can just like you guys would for me. I'll find a way to actually help out more in these adventures. Erza helped me realize that on the way here." I tried to say to lift their spirits up. It was true that I was more of a liability, but this meant I had to do much in order to stop being one.

I had more than a feeling that even finding out how I got here would be nothing but dangerous, but I couldn't rely solely on these guys to get home. In a place full of magical warriors, there had to be some way to get me able to be more capable to survive here. The device on my arm is one, but it still doesn't seem to be working. Is there a key or some kind that needs it to work?

However, I brought up a bowl. "Now, can you guys explain to me how you guys ate here for the past day with nothing but bugs?!"

Some of my 'food' the villagers presented me was currently trying to escape my bowl. I've seen countries eating bugs before, but those were even dead sometimes, not have all live grub.

"Uhh no? I don't think they even offered us food." Lucy claimed.

Giving up on eating, I went towards a prepared cot. "Well I'm going to sleep. Good night guys."

"That's not fair! How come you get to sleep on a cot while Erza made us stay here and kneel for the whole night!?"

I glanced back to Happy with deadpan. "Because I followed the rules?"

"We offered the same thing to you, traitor!"

"Yeah, and I said no. I definitely don't regret it now." I said as I laid on the comfy pillow and warm blanket beneath me.

Huh, who knew I could sleep so soundly to the sound of other people's sorrow?

  
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Meanwhile, high above Galuna island…

" **… Deliora…. This is very opportunistic.** "

  
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After Gray's rather tense confrontation with Erza, we all got on to Ignis as he flew us towards the temple. As we did, Gray explained his tale of how he and Lyon, the Cold Emperor and Douche Bag of the Week, were trained under Ur and how she came to seal herself within the ice that now traps the demon, Deliora, who also destroyed his home.

However, after he finished, I noticed something off in the distance. "I see the temple, but it's a lot more slanted than I imagined it to be."

Gray looked over my shoulder. "It wasn't like that before you guys got here. Natsu must have done it, but whether he did it on purpose or not, the temple can't perform Moon Drip like that."

It was then I heard Ignis growl slightly at something below. He suddenly snapped his neck and blew a flame breath downward.

"Whoa! Ignis!" I yelped in surprise at the sudden movement before I saw Erza stand up from the large saddle.

She pointed her blade down, where I noticed melted arrows and other weapons had fallen, and in that direction there was an army of purple cloaked cultists.

"It seems our welcoming party is here to greet us. It would be rude of us not to meet them, but we are in a hurry. Kain, bring Gray closer to the temple, I'll handle the ones below."

"Wait, Erza!" We looked to see Lucy asking help from Happy. "We'll come too!"

"Are you guys sure?" Gray seemed shocked at the offer while Ignis flew as stationary as possible for a winged creature in flight.

The scarlet haired mage turned back to Gray with a smile. "You have to settle things with Lyon, don't you?"

I looked back down while she was talking and instantly noticed something. "Guys, they're firing another volley!" I mean, their first one did jack squat, but I felt like I had to contribute something to this somewhat heartwarming and epic moment. I just wish I had better lines.

"We'll handle them!" Erza yelled as she fell down around twenty feet in the air with relative ease. "You head for the temple!" She screamed as she descended down on to her opponents. The poor bastards.

Happy and Lucy descended too, opening the way for Ignis to fly freely back towards our destination.

As we got to the entrance, Ignis landed and Gray got off.

"Gray," I spoke up to the half naked mage. "Kick his ass, alright?"

The statement made the man seem surprised. "What are you doing?"

I pointed up, "I'm going to see more about this Moon Drip and see if there's any way we can dampen it from up there."

"I see…" There was something else about Gray now that there was some moment of peace between us. He seemed oddly determined. Almost as if…

"Gray, why do I have a feeling that you're planning to use Iced Shell on Lyon?" And with how he visibly winced, I struck fool's gold.

"How did you know I was going to do that!?" It was obvious by how he yelled at me that he wasn't expecting me of all people to figure him out so quickly.

I leered at him when he admitted something like that. "Because you sounded oddly desperate to stop Lyon from releasing Deliora. I had a feeling that your emotions might make you do something drastic, but not something that stupid."

I saw his eyes widening with anger as he threw his arm out. "It's the only way to stop him!"

"That's bull shit, and you know it!" I yelled back at him. "May I remind you that where in the one place in all of Fiore where Moon Drip can be performed!? Iced Shell is practically useless here; you'd be killing yourself for just a few damn years! I doubt Ur taught you to do something as useless as that!"

Gray snarled as he took a stepped forward and yelled, "What did you say!? You don't know her!"

"That's right, I don't! You do! Would she really think that would be how she wanted you to settle that!?" I was not going to let him go down that road. "I may not be a mage, Gray, but I know when a friend of mine is being stupid, and as a good friend just did to me, I'm making sure you don't think like an idiot!"

Gray opened his mouth, but words seemed to fail him as he realized that Iced Shell was indeed useless here.

I saw him look away and clench his fist to the point it was twitching hard. "But he beat me…"

"So?" he turned to me with confusion. "Then get back up until you kick his teeth in. He has to kill you to win, and all you have to do is beat him up hard and good once. I'm sure even Natsu will agree you can do that much."

I then gave him a thumbs-up and a smile. "Your teacher sacrificed her life for you, so show Lyon the same trust she had for you when you were being stubborn and stupid."

Gray inhaled and sighed. "Damn it, you're right. Doing Iced Shell here would be pointless…. I owe you one again."

"I can't take all the credit. Erza helped me out before we came here and I basically paraphrased her." However, after the talk we felt the ground rumbling. To our surprise, we saw the temple form straight back up after being slanted.

Instead of being surprised like Gray, I just sighed deeply. "Magic is such bull shit sometimes." I looked back to the ice mage. "Ignis and I will try to slow down Moon Drop. You face your friend and maybe find Natsu. He's probably still in there after all."

"Right, good luck."

"You too." With that, Gray sped in leaving me to look up at the giant moon beam in the sky.

Well, not completely alone.

I rubbed Ignis' head. "Alright buddy, let's be cautious. You're cool and all, but who knows what kind of mage is up there with some deadly power like Erigor or Fero."

While I was feeling cautious, Ignis landed on the top and roared with all the glory a creature like him could muster.

It scared everyone… every… one dog-man-person… thing. That's it, I'm asking for a fauna book list from Master Makarov when I get back.

"W-What the!? A wyvern!? Here!?" The dog-man-thing cried out in shock.

"Uhh yeah! So stop Moon Drip and surrender you… werewolf reject?" Sorry, I'm still too stunned at his presence to really think of some witty banter right now.

"Werewolf!? I'm a dog!" The half naked dude angrily growled.

"You do realize that's significantly more mundane and less threatening, yeah?" Ahh there we go; now the banter is kicking in. I'm so proud of myself.

"My name is Toby Horhota!" And suddenly he… made claws come out of his hand?

"The hell? I thought your thing was a dog, not a cat. At least have some semblance of thematic consistency." I mean despite how stupid it looked, I should be careful at what this guy could do.

He didn't bother with my insult this time, but I had a feeling that he had no idea what I just said with all the large words I used. "Ha! These are my Mega Jellyfish Paralyzing Claws," That is a needless long spell name. And I've heard Natsu's attacks! "You'll never guess what these guys do!"

Okay, he might be a complete idiot that even puts Natsu to shame… or he's deliberately trying to lull me into a false sense of security.

"I'm assuming paralyze your opponent?" I answered cautiously as I prepared for anything that might make him look competent.

"What the hell!? Is Fairy Tail full of Espers or something!?" Unfortunately, it seemed like I might have been right in assuming that he was the former idea than the latter.

Still, it never hurts to be too safe. I think we should test that hypothesis though with a simple question. "How do you pick your nose with those nails?"

He seemed genuinely curious as he looked at them. "You know, I never thought of that until now. I wonder—GRRRAAAAHHHHH!?"

The idiot actually tried to pick his nose with them and knocked himself out by doing that.

I stared hard at his unconscious body, waiting for any sign that he was completely faking and going to turn into a competent mage of my nightmares at any moment right now.

"…"

Ignis looked up to me in confusion since I wasn't making any move to stop Moon Drip that still seemed to be going on.

"Screw it. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth for this." I jumped off and asked Ignis to tie up the guy somehow, which for wyvern language translated into him dropping a bunch of trees on him. I guess that was as good as any rope.

However, as I viewed the magical moon beam thing, a thought occurred to me.

"How the hell am I going to stop this?" I turned towards my wyvern friend who in response tilted his head slightly in confusion like a puppy would.

I waited a second before asking again.

"Do you know how to stop a magic beam from the moon?" Ignis titled his head further with a light and confused whine. It was cute, but it wasn't helping this situation at all.

Curious, I slowly moved my right hand out to touch the beam. At the slightest touch, I pulled my hand back as I felt a sting that felt worse than static shock. So much for the idea of using Ignis to go up and block the light with his body since there are no clouds for miles…

I did nothing but sit there and wait until I heard a powerful and inhuman roar coming from below.

"Of course." I sighed as I stood back up and continued to view some way I could stop the spell. Since despite that roar, the spell was still going which meant that there might still be some way to stop another demon like Lullaby from getting loose.

Yet by this time, Toby had woken up and demanded to be let go. But considering Ignis was lying on top of the trees placed on top of him, he wasn't getting out and it seemed like his nails weren't strong enough to pierce wyvern scales.

Soon after, I spotted Erza and Lucy run up to here. "Oh thank god, you two are here! I have no idea how to stop this thing!" I pointed over to Moon Drip.

Erza seemed surprised before looking to Tobi futilely trying to escape Ignis. "You already took him out? But Moon Drip should have halted when you stopped the channeling mages!"

"Wait what?" I looked around, seeing no one else beside the guy Ignis and I took down. "Is there someone else here then?" I turned to Ignis, who currently had the sharpest senses of our current group. "Can you sense anyone else nearby?"

The wyvern acknowledged my question as it sniffed the air around us since it previously didn't do so. However, it suddenly got off Toby and growled dangerously. His eyes sharpened to slits as he stood between me… and a large bush?

"Something isn't right. That's a different reaction from what we've seen so far." Erza took out a blade as she pointed a sword once more to point at the shadowy shrubbery. "Come out and surrender peacefully!"

The air suddenly turned sour as the patch of wild grass started transforming, all leaves instantly dying as wood twisted and expanded into…

No.

NO!

WHAT IS HE DOING HERE!?

" **I refuse.** " Lullaby, had appeared before us. The same demon that escaped almost three weeks ago was now here in an island where another Demon of Zeref was about to be resurrected.

Needless to say, the phrases, "over our heads" and "out of the frying pan and into the Earth's molten core" are nowhere near strong enough to describe the situation we are now in.

"Lullaby!" Erza didn't hesitate to re-equip into a powerful black Armor. "What are you doing here?!"

In response to the threat, Lullaby did not react. In all fairness, it took everyone to finally hurt the large wood demon, and seeing how we were down Natsu and Gray, I doubt we could do as much as we did last time. I also doubted I could come up with a new plan right off the bat in how to blind side this jerk.

He pointed over to me in response to Erza, which did not bode well. " **Use your mind to hypothesize my ambitions here. I found that not many people use such gifts.** " The way he said that second sentence made my stomach drop. I always feared what Lullaby was doing while he was out there, but as of that moment, he confirmed my suspicions. People were hurt or worse because of me.

However, he then quickly started to transform, his entire body untwisted itself and poured into a crack like water until he was fully gone from sight.

I then realized what he was planning to do when the purple beam turned into a different color, signaling its finish. There was really only one thing on the island he was after.

I hurriedly looked at the girls and Happy.

"He's after Deliora!"

  
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Natsu was in no way going to let Gray cast Iced Shell on this thing. He stood between him and Deliora to ensure that. That pervert is going back home with them.

The dragon slayer readied himself as Deliora towered over them. However, all of them noticed how weird it was when the freed demon look upward rather than acknowledge they existed. There was an explosion from up on above and as the rocks fell down harmlessly into the water, Gray, Natsu, and Lyon looked up to see something slowly levitating towards Deliora.

"No. What's he doing here!?" The ice mage, in utter shock, stopped channeling Iced Shell as he saw what had just come in.

Natsu took a step forward and barked at the creature. "Lullaby!? What are you doing here!?"

The levitating demon had his back turned towards them and slowly floated towards Deliora.

" **Look at you Deliora, near death's door. I almost pity you at this state if I was capable of it.** "

Deliora suddenly fell to his knees, gasping for breath as cracks started to appear over his body with light shining out of it.

"What the…" Gray and the others looked on with astonishment at the freed demon.

"Of course," Lyon gasped. "That's what the book meant in that Iced Shell weakens its target by draining its magic: all this time, Deliora has been dying inside it and now it's close to death even when freed."

"Well yeah, but what's Lullaby here for?" Gray and Natsu tensed themselves. On one hand, there were two Demons of Zeref right in front of them. On the other, they were all able to beat one, and the other was near death. The situation couldn't possibly be worse.

" **This is your last breath, Deliora. Unless,** " Lullaby floated closer and offered a hand to him. " **Take my hand. I came here originally because I sensed a familiar presence, but this opportunity can benefit us both.** "

The dying demon gave a weird sound that seemed like a weak roar and a grunt of confusion combined.

It seemed like Lullaby still understood what his fellow demon was doing. " **It's simple really. Between the two of us, you are stronger in terms of raw power, but I lack power needed to accomplish our mission. So I suggest a simple solution to our problem…** "

Lullaby made his hand touch his chest.

" **Fuse with me.** "

They were wrong. They were wrong Wrong WRONG **WRONG**.

Those three words were all it took for Gray and Natsu to realize how bad the situation really was.

"Like hell we'll let you!" Natsu roared as he and Gray fired instantly—only for a giant wall of wood to appear before them and block their sight from Lullaby and Deliora.

Gray and Natsu wasted no time at all trying to punch and blast through the wall, but despite their efforts, the wall was only being destroyed too slowly.

Lullaby turned back to Deliora where the cracks and light on his body grew more with each passing second.

" **Ultimatum time, Deliora: die here pathetically, or be reborn with new purpose.** " He reached out his hand back towards the dying demon.

Deliora seemed to grunt with annoyance as if he didn't like the idea… before reaching out to the other demon with the last of his strength.

  
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"Natsu, Gray!" Erza yelled out as we flew on Ignis into where Deliora was being kept. Instead of the demon, we all saw a large wooden barrier that Gray and Natsu were desperately trying to break.

Gray turned back to us with something I had never seen before on the proud ice mage's face: desperation and fear.

What he said next pretty much made me feel those emotions tenfold. "Erza, help us! Lullaby is trying to fuse with Deliora!"

I was so spaced out and shocked at what he said that I hadn't realized a few seconds had already passed and Erza was already desperately trying to break through the wall just as Gray and Natsu were.

Lullaby was made out to be a powerful cursed artifact who had brought countless lives to death since Zeref's time. Deliora was a demon of unparalleled destruction who left devastation in his wake wherever he went.

For both demons to… fuse together… their combination could spell the end of countless more lives to their already horrifying body count.

I heard Lucy calling my name, before I looked back at her with worry across her face. "Kain! Kain, snap out of it!"

"Wh-What?" I then noticed a person who I was assuming to be Lyon was brought up with us by Ignis' tail and made to sit along us in the saddle. Was I that out of it to not notice even Ignis moving?

"Let me go!" Lyon said even though he barely could bother the red wyvern in his state. "T-This is perfect! What better way to surpass Ur than to fight a demon even stronger than Deliora! Hurry up and come, so that I—GAAAK!?" Ignis then wrapped his tail around the man's waist again and whipped him down into the ground head first to shut him up before putting back in the saddle.

There was then a sudden hum as light started forming from inside the cracks of the wall.

"No! It's starting!" Erza cried out before all three Fairy Tail Wizards hurried their progress. A few seconds later, they had made the wall of wood shatter into fragments due to their combined efforts.

No matter how fast they were, I heard it: the humming died the second before the wall shattered. I prayed to whatever being up there that I was just imagining it.

My prayers were unanswered.

As the walls crumbled, we realized both Deliora and Lullaby were gone. In their place where Deliora once stood was an eight foot tall, dark skinned man with purple runes all across his bulging muscles. He was wearing some kind of black pants that looked tied up as a monk with a white sash covering his waist, but as he turned towards us, he had hair black as a raven and his face was covered by what looked to be Deliora's crown now used to cover him like a face plate.

At least, I thought it was a face plate. I didn't expect to see three eyes open right on top of it.

The giant eight foot man with runic muscles raised his hands slowly. As he did, electricity cackled around him and the water around him was being pushed away by his presence alone.

I would be lying if I told you the air did not change at that instant. I found it suddenly hard to breathe as if something thick was in the air.

He then turned towards us, looking at us with those three, glowing, pale eyes of his and spoke.

"A form from the demon of songs, and the demon of destruction," His voiced sounded like silk going through our ears which only repulsed our very cores. "We—no—I am Symphony the prelude to the end."

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't help but believe his words were nothing but the truth.

"I don't care who you are!" Natsu unleashed a powerful amount of flames around him. Yet, even I could tell he was still sweating nervously despite his brave talk. "You're going down!"

He made the fires boost him at great speeds right to the newborn demon and punch him right in the face. The punch followed through and made the demon crash into the other end of the cave.

"Not so tough, are you!?" Natsu smiled as he got a heavy punch in.

However, Symphony didn't seem to flinch at all as he simply pulled himself out of the wall and started walking back to Natsu. As he walked, he cracked his neck by moving it both sides, and there was no trace of damage on him.

"You're kidding me. He's not even scratched!" Gray gasped in horror.

Symphony stood in front of Natsu. We all waited nervously as the demon raised his arm… and motioned his fingers to come at him again.

From surprise, the pink haired mage's face turned to rage as he wailed on to Symphony kick after punch after punch after kick.

Yet… Symphony did nothing to defend himself. He let all those blows and fire connect easily… and much to our horror, he wasn't getting injured.

Natsu yelled as he punched right for Symphony's stomach… then recline his fist and yelp in pain as he held it out.

We all stared in horror that Natsu of all people got hurt from punching someone else.

"You bastard," the dragon slayer snarled with anger. "Stop looking down on me!" he quickly jumped and with a magical circle of fire behind his ankle, he performed a rocket round house kick right into Symphony's head.

The impact gave a shockwave that was seen even in the water. But Symphony still did not seem bothered by the powerful blow.

In fact…

"Aaahhhggh!" Natsu yelled again as he retracted his foot and started hopping around.

"N-No way! Natsu got hurt from attacking!?" I was just as afraid as Lucy as she said such a thing. We were soon starting to realize how far the power gap between us and the fusion demon now was.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled as he held a large ice bazooka towards Symphony. "Get out of the way!"

The Dragon Slayer did so as several magic circles appeared in the front of Gray's bazooka. "Ice Make: Laser!"

A giant beam of energy hit Symphony… and whatever was unfortunate enough to stand behind him, including the walls of the temple.

As the light died down, a large missing chunk of earth was missing as Gray fell to his knees exhausted.

However, as seconds passed, utter disbelief was the only thing that remained on his face.

"No… I gave my all in that spell!" The raven haired stripper cried out as Symphony stood untouched even with everything else behind him obliterated by a large amount of magical energy.

"I would challenge the scarlet haired mage," Symphony began as he walked towards us again. "But by now, we'd all understand how that would work out."

"Don't be so sure!" Erza charged at Symphony with a show of weapons, skills, and abilities.

There was a stabbing sound as after a while, one of the blades Erza used had pierced through Symphony's skin.

Symphony eyed the blade lodged into him as Erza jumped back and pointed another blade right at him. "You've been far too careless! I've noticed those runes glowing each time Gray and Natsu attacking you. All I need to do is attack you until you drop the magic of your runes and take you down."

"She noticed that, after a few attacks?" Lucy cried out with some shred of hope. "M-Maybe we can win this!"

"Lucy," I spoke out at last as I looked closer to the fight. "Symphony isn't even bothered that Erza saw through his defense."

She looked again towards the scene and indeed, despite finally hurting the demon, Symphony showed no signs of losing his cool.

He grabbed the blade, and instantly it turned into a black katana with a low purple glow around it. He swung the sword several times around like a curious child until his swings started to gain form, precision, and now he was swinging it around like a sword master in under a few seconds.

"I too have learned much from watching you. You have excellent form, and by practicing what I have seen, I now know how to use a blade." He held the onyx blade near his face as he stared at its reflection.

And just like that, what little hope we did have was suddenly dwarfed at the realization that Erza wasn't the only one observing and learning her opponent, Symphony was as well.

"So what!?" Natsu yelled again. Leave it to him to keep fighting even in front of a powerful enemy. "We only attacked you one by one, but this time, we're all going to kick your ass!"

That seemed to cheer up Gray and Erza as they soon joined Natsu in a combined attack on the demon.

Yet… all Symphony did was bow his head down slightly. "I believe it's my turn to attack."

That was all it took before in one instant, a large purple magic circle encompassed the entire area. I noticed all the magic the top three were gathering had suddenly vanished while they were all mid air. The trio looked on surprise, but had instantly forgotten who they were flying towards.

Symphony didn't hesitate to kick the three of them back towards us.

Ignis got out of the way as the three of them crashed into the wall.

Lucy, seeing our strongest members taken out, took out one of her keys to help support them. "Open, Gate of Taurus!"

…

"Huh!? Taurus, come out! You don't usually ignore me!" Lucy stared at her key with growing panic. However, I paled as I recognized the magic circle we were still under. It was the same one I spent minutes trying to figure out how to undo.

I turned to the blonde mage, remembering something she told me and Erza earlier that day. "Lucy, didn't you warn me that moon energy could nullify magic, which was why Moon Drip existed?"

The celestial mage started to shiver as she seemed to be figuring out what I was saying. "W-What are you saying?"

I looked back down at everyone getting back up. Despite being able to stand, I noticed that they all seemed to be looking at their hands in confusion.

"Symphony has cancelled our magic!" I yelled out, my mind was working into overdrive as I pointed to the leftover water still in here even after Gray's attack. "Ignis, burn the water!"

The wyvern wasted no time at all as he shot a flame breath right into the water, instantly covering steam around the area. I yelled to the wyvern to grab Erza, Natsu, and Gray before we all flew out of there as quickly as possible.

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the hell, Kain!? Get us back in there!" Natsu yelled as Ignis brought his tail up to drop all three mages onto his saddle.

"Hell, no!" Kain yelled back as Ignis flew back into the open and was led back towards the village. "You couldn't even harm Symphony with magic! That nullifying area he has makes it practically impossible to hurt him even with that weakness Erza found! We have to regroup and plan a different idea," the brown haired teen looked back at Gray. "And no, Gray! You are not using Iced Shell!"

"Are you kidding me?! That thing took my strongest attack like it was nothing! Even I can tell this guy is even stronger than both Lullaby and Deliora!"

"Then we make a better plan! Attacks do hurt him, but not while his defenses are up!" The muggle cried back to the ice mage as Ignis flew faster towards the town.

Even though they were all flying, they all suddenly noticed the area around them turn purple like back in the cave.

"He caught up to us already!?" Erza looked around for any sign of their enemy while still continuing. "Kain, move in a different direction, we can't let Symphony get near the vill—"

There was a deafening boom that hit Ignis on his side, causing everyone aboard to scream as the wyvern crash landed and flung everyone he was carrying into the ground like someone spilled chips.

The first to get up was Erza as she stood up on her feet and looked around for her team members. "I-Is everyone alright!?"

Kain's voice reached her first "I-I am somehow… oh. Uhh, Gray? I think Lyon cushioned my fall… and his arm is bending in a way that doesn't look possible." Double jointed doesn't begin to explain how his left arm is bending like that.

"To be honest this is all his fault anyway. A broken arm doesn't really make me feel bad." The resident Fairy Tail stripper got up and creaked his neck. "Besides, he'll just get a healer to look at it and in a week, it'll…." He trailed off as he saw the arm in question. "…and in a month or two he'll be fine." he corrected.

Natsu got up as if falling from a wyvern didn't bother him at all despite the dirt all over him. "Where is Symphony? I'm going to kick his ass for attacking us in the air!"

At that, Kain instantly looked over and screamed, "Ignis!" before running up to the weakened wyvern laying on the ground with smoke coming out of him.

"Please be alright!" The young man yelled as he checked for the creature's heart beat. To his relief, he could still hear it, but the red beast was out cold.

"We have to be on our guard, Symphony can be here any minute!" Erza said as she looked around for any sign of where Symphony might be among the now purple forest.

"A town of demons. How curious." The entire group looked over to Symphony facing the direction of the village with his back turned away from Fairy Tail. "They are… docile. Domesticated. I'm supposed to be the same class as them, but we could not be any more different."

"Don't you dare touch them!" Natsu roared at Symphony before running towards the newly fused demon.

Symphony looked back without any form of emotion. "I don't have to."

As soon as he said that, the bushes and trees around them started to move and shake. No one was expecting the people to come out was the entire village of Galuna Island running towards Fairy Tail like mad dogs. The closest ones didn't hesitate to pin Natsu to the floor.

"W-What the hell!? Guys!? Get off me!" He yelled as the Village Chief was snarling at him and forcing him to the ground. More of the villagers ran for the Fairy Tail mages, surprising them and pinning them to the point of immobility.

Kain was one of the first to notice something about a demon pinning him down to the ground. "T-They don't have pupils! Symphony is controlling them!"

Symphony started walking towards Fairy Tail after that statement was heard by everyone. "It is only natural that demons have some animalistic trait. They obey the alpha, which in this case is me." he threw his hand out and pointed to a ground in front of him. "Get them aligned."

Soon, despite everyone's best attempts, while also being hesitant to hurt the people they were sworn to protect, they were all put to kneel in front of Symphony with the demon towering over Kain first.

The young muggle in particular seemed to start hyperventilating as the demon towered over him. He looked like a scared little boy in front of an executor.

"Kain Reynolds, I believe this might be what is called utter gratitude. Had I not met you as Lullaby, I would have never been so close to reaching my goal. As such," he took out the blade he had stolen from Erza and transformed into a black katana and held it high over Kain's scared face. "your death shall be painless."

The man from another dimension himself had his eyes widen in fear as he just stared like a deer staring at a fast moving car about to hit him.

Everyone else was horrified to hear such a thing and struggled harder to get free from the grasp. Natsu especially was motivated to move like nothing before.

"KAIN!" To the surprise of everyone, Natsu powered through and tossed the demon civilians off him and punched the guys pinning Kain to the ground.

"Run, Kain! Run!" he yelled before turning back to Symphony with a battle cry that sounded almost desperate.

Kain got up in shock as he saw Natsu punching down the demon civilians as he made his way towards Symphony. However, Symphony easily swatted Natsu aside with his back hand and turned to look back at the non-magic user.

His look alone made Kain shiver in fear. Kain wasn't a powerful mage; he wasn't a warrior; he was just an ordinary person who was so scared… that he started to hyper ventilate and gasp for air frantically.

"Kain, run!" "Run, you idiot!" "Kain, get out of here!" "You must flee!"

Kain looked around as Lucy, Gray, Happy, and Erza shouted him to run before Erza and Gray got up and freed Happy and Lucy.

Happy activated his wings and grabbed Kain in an attempt to get him out of here while the others relied on their close combat to ward off their mindless clients. However, even with their skill, Gray and Erza held back tremendously in order not to hurt their employers too much. The fact they held back only made it worse for them due to the fact as demons, they were far more resistant to normal attacks.

"I'm curious, why are you fighting so hard to protect someone so weak?" Symphony asked before he snapped his fingers, making trees shoot their branches out and snag Happy mid air, causing them both to crash near Ignis.

"He's our friend! And we won't let you hurt him!" Nastsu cried as he punched Symphony in the face, but as he made contact, Natsu was the one wincing as the runes activated and made it so that Symphony would feel nothing.

Symphony pinned the dragon slayer down before snapping his fingers, making large sprouts of wood come out and ensnare everyone else except Kain and the hypnotized civilians. He then snapped his fingers again, causing his wooden restraints to gag all those ensnared and unable to speak.

"Very well, you will be the first to die then." Without missing a beat, Symphony raised his sword.

Kain on the other hand was already crying as he stood back up and could only watch in horror. He was going to die—worse, he was going to cause everyone to die because of what happened with Lullaby. This was all his fault and he could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

Stop it.

Stop it.

"STOP IT!" Kain desperately yelled as he saw the blade rise higher and higher.

Symphony sighed in boredom before putting his blade down. "Fine, I shall indulge you since I still want to test more of my new powers. But I rescind making your death painless."

"I-I…" Kain clenched his fist so hard that it started bleeding. Words couldn't come out but tears and frustration did.

"If you are wondering why I didn't trap you it was because I knew you couldn't do anything. But I will allow you one last sentence, make it count." Symphony was arrogant, callous… but how could he not be? He had taken every single precaution away from his enemies, their magic, their clients, for one of them, even their will to live was near shattered. Nothing but a miracle could save them now.

Kain absolutely hated himself, he hated how it came to all this. He wanted anything—anyone to help him out of this…

But it looked like no one was coming.

It was just him. All alone as he watched his stronger friend suffer and about to be put closer to death.

No one would save him this time.

And strangely… after all of that… he was starting to get really, really pissed.

It wasn't fair! He tried so far to help, and this is what he got for it!? No! His father… his father was always hard on him, saying that life wasn't fair in the slightest, but he had to be stronger, he had to move on and make choices to be better—circumstances be damned!

There was one thing left after all! One thing that had the potential to change this horrible situation!

Kain gritted his teeth and shouted so loud that even the heavens could hear the cry of a desperate yet determined young man.

"Please! Work!"

He swung his right arm, the one with a wyvern armlet, right in front of him as he slammed his left hand down right into the button of the device, which was the wyvern head itself.

As soon as he made contact, the device glowed with scarlet light before a giant flash of crimson light blinded everyone looking at the boy. The entire light that previously turned the forest and moon purple was now filtered into red.

Symphony, despite shielding his eyes from Kain, saw the change of color around them and the sky. "What!? What is this!? It can't be magic, I'm nullifying it!" He said as he felt his senses blare with something foreboding coming his way.

The crimson light snapped the demons out from Symphony's control and the wood restraints on the Fairy Tail mages had dropped and shattered into dust.

Everyone present, and the very few spying from the distance, looked to the light, and as it died down they all could not believe what they were seeing.

Kain was now clad in full crimson armor much like a knight, but his helmet had the designs of a wyvern head, with small horns perturbing outward like it did with Ignis. He had a long red cape that flowed in the wind but was revealed to be parted in two, and his helmet also had a face plate that looked sharp and had a black visor made of glass like substance that spanned over his eyes.

Later on, Kain would quote to himself that he looked almost exactly like a Power Ranger in armor instead of spandex. (Much later on he found out that he was only power ranger like in appearance, everything else was different but that will be elaborated on another day.)

But to everyone else…

He looked like a Wyvern Knight.

Inside the armor, Kain had momentarily lost all form of thought. However, it was instantly replaced with his instincts that somehow knew what to do with the armor….

Along with blinding rage.

"HAAAA!" Everyone heard the filtered and angry scream of the knight before he started to run—run faster than Symphony and anyone, himself included, expected to—and punched him right in the gut with so much force that there was a visible shock wave from the impact along with a loud bone-crunching crack sound followed by a loud gasp of both shock and pain.

To Sypmhony's surprise it hurt a lot. He was not expecting his defeated enemies to fight back with this much ferocity and success. He had obviously played with his enemies because he assumed that there truly was no way for them to get out of this situation. However, he had obviously let his guard down and had now made a huge mistake.

After the attack, the fused demon backed off a safe distance from his new opponent and glared at the red knight now standing before him.

The red knight threw his cape away from the front of his body as he showed a clenched fist to Symphony. "That was for Happy!"

He stomped on the ground and with another burst of speed, maybe even faster than the first time, and rushed for Symphony a second time.

Again, Symphony was not expecting him to be so fast, but this time he powered up his runes across his body. Surely they would—

"GAH!?" Symphony flew as he was punched with something that felt like the force of ten wyverns! But something was wrong besides the amount of pain he was feeling. He knew he activated his runes, but why didn't they work!?

"That was for Lucy!" What!? Symphony turned his head mid flight. How was he already behind him!?

Kain kicked Symphony back with an impressive round house that threw Symphony's new body through several trees. However, the fused demon landed on his feet and slid to a stop.

"That one was for Gray," The red wyvern knight started walking towards him with a dangerous glint shinning off his visor. "This one will be for Erza."

"This can't be happening!?" Symphony whispered to himself as he gathered energy into his arms and several magical circles appeared in front of him then suddenly a large beam of magical energy shot out of it like a cannon.

The knight ran right for the beam much to the shock of everyone involved, including Kain himself as he trusted his instincts. As the beam came close to the armor, something strange happened again: the magical energy dispersed upon contact, not even harming the armored boy in the slightest. Symphony and everyone stared in bewilderment even when Kain ran right in and upper cut the demon high into the sky.

With a powerful leap, Kain caught up to the demon in the sky and brought his hands together.

"And this one is for hurting Natsu!" With every ounce of force he could muster, he brought his hands down and slammed the demon into the ground like a meteor.

Kain landed down in front of Fairy Tail and the island locals. Everyone was in shock at the sight before them and a large number of them were confused beyond their minds.

"K-Kain?" Lucy managed to speak out to the knight in red. "A-Are you in there?"

The figure in crimson turned towards her before slowly looking at himself. "Yeah… I… I… did I really all do that?" The voice that came out was in utter disbelief, but it sounded exactly like the Kain they knew.

"Whaa! How on earth are you wearing armor like that!?" Natsu ran up to look at every corner of Kain in the suit. "I've never seen something like that before in my life!"

"I just… I just…" it seemed like Kain himself didn't know what to say.

"I have made mistakes."

That voice suddenly turned the mood back into something grim as out of the dust, Symphony walked out of the crater. There was a sound of hissing that made everyone look towards his wounds that all seemed to be reforming back to prefect shape despite all of Kain's unbelievable attacks.

"No way, even after that, he can just heal himself!?" Lucy gasped at the same time shivered in fear.

"Alright, you punk, round two!" Natsu screamed as he tried to power up… but he realized that Symphony never lifted the purple—now red hue covering the area, meaning they still couldn't use magic.

"Kain," Erza yelled, making the knight look at the S-class mage. "You're the only one who can fight him! Hold him off while we evacuate everyone!"

"R-Right!" While he was unsure how he did all that, Kain was now going to make sure that he would help out and fight… somehow.

While Erza and the others tried to herd the villagers away from the fight, Kain ran up again in order to punch Sypmhony, but the demon was more than prepared this time. The humanoid demon side stepped the attack before tripping the knight into the ground and kicking him into a tree.

"Magical based attacks don't work on you, but physical ones do." Lullaby darkly noted as he suddenly shifted into a fighting stance. "This is pay back for a while ago."

As soon as Kain got up, Lullaby wasted no time in rushing for the boy, unleashing a devastating combo of punches and kicks on to the knight. Kain, while he was bracing the blows much better thanks to the armor, realization came to him that he couldn't fight at all. It was obvious as night and day that those hits Kain scored earlier were nothing but sucker punches when Symphony's guard was down. The fused demon unleashed a strong right hook that knocked Kain into the ground and forced him to slid back a good distance.

Soon after, the other Fairy Tail mages all ran up to their friend when they made sure the other villagers were safe from the battle.

"Kain! Are you alright!?" Gray cried out to him as they all gathered around him. Erza in particular knelt to see if there was any way he was still conscious.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Kain groan in pain. He was hurt, but not out.

"So much for your last hope," Symphony stalked over to them and raised his arm. The sword he dropped during Kain's attack flew right back into his hand. "I will not be making that same mistake again."

Things weren't looking good. Kain was their last hope, but as of right now, he stood no chance against the raw power of the fused demon.

"Damn! If only we could use magic!" Natsu cried out as he clenched his fists.

"With or without them, we will fight you!" Erza cried out as she stood up to protect Kain. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were quick to join her in facing down Symphony.

Symphony slowly put himself into a stance after he heard this. His sword rose skillfully and pointed to his targets. "Then die."

Kain got back up as the demon said this. With speed, he shouted out loud, "Actually," which caused the fused demon and his friends to look at him with confusion.

"Let's beat this guy with magic." With that, Kain jumped back from everyone and lifted his fist high… then punched the ground as hard as he could. The red color around them started to crack all around them until the entire color shattered like glass, returning all the other colors back to normal.

Natsu instantly checked his fist, and as he did fire came back to his arm. "Oooh yeah! Now we're talking!"

"You broke the moon essence!?" Kain would always remember the look on the demon's face as he said this from then on. He had no idea he could make powerful demons look with shock and surprise.

Kain smiled inside his visor as he walked back to his friends who were now powering up. "You said it yourself Symphony: I seem immune to energy based magic. Wasn't your field of Anti-Magic something like that?"

The knight now pointed to the fused demon. "Now you're going to feel the true wrath of Fairy Tail's greatest team! Team…!" Kain froze mid sentence as everyone looked to him with some amount of worry. The knight put down his hand and looked to everyone else. "What do we call ourselves, anyway?"

"Team Natsu!"

Gray was quick to turn to his best enemy friend. "Over your dead body, flame farts!"

"Both of you stop it!" Erza barked, causing both Gray and Natsu to drop glaring at each other instantly. "It's obvious we are Team Fairy Tail!"

Lucy scratched her face at her teammate's rather simple name. "Actually, that's kind of redundant." She shook her head and pointed at Symphony. "Can we please focus back on topic of the super demon in front of us!?"

The fused demon was tired of being looked down upon and quickly went for Team (Name Here). All mages and Happy scattered as they avoided the blow. Natsu was the first to jump back in with fire blazing his fists.

"That will not work!" Symphony declared as he powered up his runes.

However, when Natsu punched him, he felt the stinging burn… and the touch of someone behind him!

Symphony quickly pushed Natsu back before turning his head to see Kain was already touching his back.

"It looks like you can't activate those annoying runes when I'm touching you!" The red knight screamed out.

Symphony roared as he raised his sword hand to cut the knight down. However, his hand was then caught by a whip that prevented him from following through. He hurriedly glanced down the whip to see Lucy pulling as hard as she could along with Happy to prevent the blade from touching their friend.

Then Kain grabbed on to Symphony's waist and calmed on tight. "Now!" The red knight cried out as he seemed to tense and brace himself.

When the demon turned around, he was faced to face with Gray wielding an ice enhanced blade and Erza wearing her Black Wing Armor. The two unleashed a powerful slash a second after Kain got out of the way. The energy of the two sword attacks blasted the demon away.

Symphony flipped mid air and slid to a stop. He stood back up and he slammed his fists together and suddenly, a dozen magical circles appeared. They all fired energy blasts at the team, making everyone move to avoid them and leaving a few for Kain to get in front of Lucy and Happy to dissipate some of those blasts.

The demon angrily roared as he then stomped into the ground, instantly shooting out a large amount of vines towards Erza and Gray.

Natsu sped past the two of them, fire burning brightly as he yelled and unleashed a powerful flame that blasted through the wooden spikes.

Symphony kicked his leg, sweeping the fire away from him, but then Erza, Gray, and Natsu had closed the gap.

He activated his runes to up his defense. However, to the demon's surprise, all three of them froze.

Natsu, Gray, and Erza smirked before they all jumped out of the way for Kain to come in at the speed of a bullet and smash his fist into Symphony's gut a second time. The armor broke through the protective magic of the runes and made the demon stagger, gasp in pain, and let go of the protective magic. As the red knight backed off, that was the cue for the other three to unleash hell on the downed demon.

Even with his runes down, Symphony still seemed to take in all attacks. He braced himself and stood strong despite the attacks while quickly gaining energy.

"Enough!" Sypmhony, in a burst of energy, blasted Erza, Natsu, and Gray into three separate directions. However, Kain was immune to this blast of energy and now stood alone in front of a towering Symphony.

Using his blade, Symphony ran for Kain and tried to slash him into pieces. Kain; however, was fast enough to avoid cuts so sharp that the air was cut whenever and wherever the demon swung his blade.

It was then that a loud cry came from behind Symphony which made the large demon look behind him. He swung his blade backward to block a giant axe that was used by a humanoid cow.

"How dare you hurt Ms. Lucy, three eyes!" The cow cried out as he backed off the clash and swung his axe horizontally at the fused monster. However, the demon ducked under it and then unleashed a heavy punch right into the jaw of Taurus and sent him flying through several trees from the impact.

Symphony realized Kain was still behind him and quickly turned around. However, his three eyes only caught something red quickly ducking just beneath his view.

Symphony' sight followed his opponent—but only saw a fist rising up to black out his sight.

Kain had jumped and punched Symphony upward with every ounce of strength he had left. The resulting impact created a loud, resounding cracking noise coming from Symphony's jaw before he was sent like a rocket up high into the sky and causing the demon to drop his blade a second time.

During the fight, Ignis was slowly getting back up and as he saw his friends winning, he roared back to life as he fought through the pain and fired a large orb of flames towards Symphony. Erza and those that could also use launch long ranger attacks fired them at the airborne Symphony, causing a massive explosion for the entire island to see.

Symphony's burning person fell into the ground like a boulder. He rose back up to his feet, his wounds still healing from all the damage he took.

"I will grind you all beneath my fee—" The fused demon stopped mid threat. There was a red knight missing among their group and all of his enemies were looking up with varying levels of shock and elation.

Before he could even process what that image meant to him, a shadow descended on him, forcing Symphony to look up… and see Kain holding his blade!

"HAAA!" Kain followed through with the slash, shredding through Symphony's torso and leaving a huge gash on it.

Symphony roared with deafening pain. He staggered backward and clutched the wound with his hand.

However, unlike all the other wounds, this large scar was not healing! Symphony looked up, spotting Kain wielding the blade.

In his hands though, the sword began to transform again. In a bath of red light, the katana transformed into a sleek red broadsword that matched Kain's armor.

The pain from the sword was not healing. In fact he could feel it dampening his healing factor and making his new blood boil over mysterious energy that felt different from regular magic. It was enough to make him fall into his knee and gasp for breath as he tried in some way to lessen the burning sensation across his chest.

He lifted his head up, anger featured over his demonic visage, "You will pay for this!" With his vengeful yell, team (name here) got prepared for anything, but they weren't expecting Symphony to grow wings and start flying!

Flying…

… He was flying away…

A few seconds passed. It was then that Lucy seemed to shout out in cheer after seeing no sign of Symphony returning. "We won!"

Everyone gasped as the threat finally left them. Kain in particular dropped the blade—which vanished instantly—and then dropped to his knees. In a flash of red light, he was back to normal with the device on his right arm glowing faintly before stopping.

"Kain! Are you alright?!" Natsu was the first to see if the young man was alright.

The brown haired boy looked to the dragon slayer and started laughing weakly. "Natsu, I am sorry for how I acted these past few weeks. But please, don't choose another S-class quest for at least half a year."

A huge grin appeared on Natsu face before he also started laughing though far more genuinely.

His giant laughter was contagious as everyone else soon started to laugh as well, including Ignis.

They all earned it though. After this night, they wanted to do nothing but go home.

…

…

Erza was the first to stop laughing as she also sighed. "As much as we should celebrate. We still have to finish the mission." Everyone looked at her with disbelief as the composed armor mage continued. "We came here to cure the villagers, not fight off Lullaby and Deliora. Do you not all remember this?"

At the mention of that, Kain wisely added to the situation and said, "Well shit."

Then he promptly fainted on the spot from sheer exhaustion.

  
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…

Elsewhere, watching Fairy Tail in the distance…

"Did you see that, sir?" A masked figure whispered to a floating crystal orb.

"Unfortunately, I only saw the last part when the young lawyer broke the magical essence preventing magic from working properly." The voice from the crystal responded with curious interest. "These turn of events are unpredictable to say the least."

"I can only imagine. I never expected Lullaby to appear and fuse with Deliora even in my wildest dreams. Should we now move into trying to control Symphony?"

"That will take too many resources to do. Symphony seems to be in a level beyond both demons, and the only reason why he lost was due to the fact he was still learning how to use his new body." The voice impassively explained. "But I don't believe we have to worry about Lullaby. However, do keep an eye on Fairy Tail's new lawyer. Even when the moon essence stopped, his image was static-like the entire time the orb observed him."

"It was?" The masked stranger asked curiously.

"Makarov did report that they potentially stumbled onto something in the oldest and widest spread 100 year old quest. If the rumors and legends are even half true, the lawyer has stumbled on to something that will without a doubt play an important role in the future."

At this, the masked strange gave a wide smile. "Would you like me to add a new note along with the Salamander file?"

"Oh yes, please. I want everything on this new player."

What the two silent conspirators didn't know at the time: Symphony could still hear them while he was leaving the island.

The injured fused demon was currently stationary a few hundred feet above the sea as he turned back towards the island, hearing the entire conversation even miles away.

"Hmm, it appears I can still hear voices through remains of my wood magic that was scattered throughout the fight. A new power that I must note," He clenched his fist. "That outside voice was correct. I underestimated my enemy and myself, causing this scar in the first place." He traced a hand on the scar the young armored knight now made across his chest. "I must be more efficient to prevent such a lackadaisical mistake in the future."

All three of his eyes glowed brightly as he looked out into the sea more determined than ever.

"I must train to become stronger in body, mind, and spirit. Only then can I even begin to start my main objective: to kill my master, Zeref."

  
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{Extra Scene}

All across the planet of Earthland, several devices sparked to life…

The first one only sparked a maddening conclave of a million roars among a sea of clad pink creatures.

And then, there was a scream to silence all monstrous shouts in a second, one so powerful it could make the bravest of men weep in fear by just hearing it.

With a low growl, the creature stared into the horizon, sensing something was coming, something big, even if his animalistic mind could not comprehend it. Something was drawing him, him and his 'clan' but he could not pin point where it was coming from.

These 'thoughts' would have to wait. A stronger instinct was overriding every other one at that moment.

Hunger.

The creature clad in pink then jumped into the air, followed by a swarm.

It was time to feast.

  
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The second and third one were together, spotting their hands as a blue and yellow glow enveloped them.

"I sense red even though the colors are the same as they have always been. The Crimson Bohemian has been activated."

"My lord," The other said. "Do you know what this means?"

"Of course. Prepare our forces, the war for a new god shall soon be upon us!"

  
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And the last one, a black glow came on the wrist of a man in a dark room.

"Hahahaha," He laughed in a calm and eerie manner. "Mr. Kain Obadiah Reynolds, you magnificent son of a gun. You're accelerating my plans better than even I could have hoped for."

  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

…

"Huh?" Happy looked up to Kain while the residents of Galuna were flying around happily at the return of their memories. "Jeeze Kain, I didn't know you were such a softy to start crying over this."

"Wha?" To Happy and Kain's surprise, the young man turned to the blue cat with confusion. "Crying? I'm not…" Instantly, he felt something in his cheeks and put his hands on them to find they were indeed wet.

However, he wasn't expecting the tear to be filled with four different colors.

Kain wiped his tears dry and looked at it again, seeing that the tears were back to their normal color. It confused him, but he didn't exactly know what to make of it. Perhaps he was still exhausted from the battle with Symphony?

Neither the young man nor the blue cat noticed Kain's armlet glowing four different colors before fading back to normal.

…

Ignis knew this and turned away as soon as he saw the light fade. While resting from his injuries, the red wyvern simply looked beyond the happy demons and glanced towards the moon. If anyone had decided to look at the crimson dragonic beast at this moment, they would have noticed how old and sorrowful his eyes truly were.

_The red wyvern then gave a simple yawn and fell asleep, taking in all the peaceful slumbers it possibly could._ _On this day, two powerful forces were born on Galuna Island._  
_One would destroy the world,_  
_And the other would save it._  
_However…_  
_The one you most expect, is the least likely to gain their title._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, thankfully, my notes needed some new context because I was power scaling things wrong the first time. Instead of just comparing, I'll leave you all to guess how powerful Symphony is since I made the mistake of thinking Second Origin was not as powerful to me as it is to most people. He's strong, but not "Enemies past the Seven Year skip" strong. That should scale things down better since the first notes here, I imagined him around the same level as those guys from that demon guild when they were more powerful than I remembered, leading to some misconceptions on power scaling.
> 
> (You guys can call the morpher a Deus Ex Machina. As much as I would have liked it to not be like that, certain things about the morpher won't really be explored yet until the Nirvana Saga and any time to explain it now would make very little sense and seem out of place and not organic for my story when the characters don't know how it works.)
> 
> And now, boom! Kain has a way to fight back by becoming a POWER RANGER!
> 
> Go-go power rangers!~ Doo Doo doo do doo~
> 
> In all seriousness, the design closely resembles a power ranger, but I've tweaked it a bit so it's something else completely here in the world of Fairy Tail. (It's even got its own tie into the overall plot of this story, according to my notes I wrote when I was dying of the flu.)
> 
> I'm so glad this chapter is done. Now Kain does have a way to not die as easily as before and at the same time, he still isn't a mage! (Ha! This title is not lying to you!)
> 
> I always find loop holes in stories fun as heck. If any of you decide to write, try to challenge yourself and write odd stuff, it is fun I swear!
> 
> But before I end, I'm so excited! I can finally start an ORIGINAL ARC!
> 
> That's right folks, the first original arc is coming soon! I'm so excited to write it, I hope you guys will be too!
> 
> Oh and one more thing I need to ask you guys.
> 
> How is the story?
> 
> Anyway, that's enough for now, see you guys later, and thanks for reading!


	8. Who do you think you are, Rocky Balboa?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Kain has access to the ancient weapon that reminds him eerily to one of his favorite shows as a kid, it's both his job and duty to find out the extent of this new power!
> 
> ... Though, he is at a complete loss as to how to even do such a thing. He'll just have to trust Fairy Tail to think of something.
> 
> Wait a second, Fairy Tail and thinking? Most of their plans involve something breaking catastrophically-oh he is screwed.

"Aaah! Magnolia, home sweet home in another dimension!" I sighed in relief as the town came in sight up in the air. I motioned Ignis to land near the edge of town much to the surprise of everyone else.

Gray was one of the first to speak up about this as we landed. "Why are we stopping here and not the guild directly?"

I turned to him after he said that. I felt blood rising to my cheeks in embarrassment as I said this next, "Umm right. It only occurred to me as we left this morning: I forgot to tell you guys that I had an appointment later today and I'm almost late for it right now." I have to help Kageyama Maru with building his case today.

"You have another job? That's good for you!" Lucy congratulated me. It seemed like that reason was good enough for everyone as they all hopped off Ignis.

"You guys can take it from here yeah? I've got to head there as soon as possible!" I yelled out to them as Ignis started flying up. "I'll catch up with you guys after lunch!"

With a wave goodbye, I left everyone to go to my other job. Yeesh, even after almost being killed by a demon, I have to go to a desk job.

It seems like work practices even in another world are as vicious and draining as in any other world.

How disappointing.

  
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Thankfully, I left a copy of the files with Kage's office. So that meeting went well, even if I wasn't fully and properly dressed.

As Ignis landed on the backyard, I thanked it a lot before telling it to get a nice huge rest.

But now, it's nice to finally return to Fairy Tail!

…

Even if it's currently lively as all heck with how everyone was arguing. At least no spells were being thrown around this time.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" I yelled out, which seemed to silence everyone as they all suddenly turned to me.

"KAIN! HELP US!" What in the name of Abraham Lincoln's top hat are they all yelling about!?

I pushed Loke aside since he was one of the first to run up to me and start shaking me desperately. "Dude, what the heck!? You're acting like Natsu!"

"I am Natsu!" Loke cried… wait what?

"What do you mean, you are Natsu?" Needless to say, at this point I was giving him a disbelieving look.

"I said I am! And will someone please put on the lights!? It's getting hard to see here!" Okay wait, Loke knows he's wearing sunglasses. Only someone like Natsu would think… oh.

OH.

I turned to everyone. After a very careful observation, I noticed near everyone did look stranger than usual.

"Ahh Kain! Maybe you could help… somehow!" Lucy said as she, Gray, and Levy ran up to me before explaining what had happened.

I stared in utter awe after being told what happened. "The hell? It's like emailed viruses only with magic!"

"E-what?"

"Never mind that Natsu… I mean… Loke?" I questioningly asked as I viewed Na—Loke in Natsu's body drooling out flames that were obviously not in control. "Can you guys show me where the spell is? I want to read it myself."

They warned me reading at aloud might do something bad, but I argued I didn't have any magic whatsoever, so it should have been fine. After reading it for a few seconds, I looked to everyone in the room.

"I can probably tell by just looking, but who here has switched bodies? Raise your hand and stand next to the one you switched with." Okay, Master Makarov and Mirajane—going to need to fix that pronto. Elfman and Cana (well that is a bizarre switch). Happy and Erza: ooohhhh that's gotta hurt Erza. Loke and Natsu, yeah I know those guys. And lastly, Jet and Droy: I don't see that much difference in them.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe—you two. Jet and Droy. You're both up." My finger landed on the two that seemed the least bothered by their change.

"Huh?" "What?" They said in confusion and union.

I clapped my hands together to get everyone's attention then pointed out the door. "Alright, everyone else: get out!"

"Huh!?" They all screamed at me.

In hindsight, I probably should explain how this is going to work. "Look, reading the spell out loud switched bodies right?" I waited for all of them to at least take time to say yes in their mind before continuing. "So why stop there? Let's keep using the spell until our bodies are switched to the proper owners."

I stopped for a second and looked to my manager who was my boss but still manager… okay that didn't make sense, "Mira—I mean Master, Mira should have a light pen in her pocket, could you let me borrow it for a second?"

Mira's body seemed to give a suspicious smile at the thought of checking out her own clothes. "Don't mind if I—"

"And if you take too long, I will allow some complaints and debts to file through to the guild if you don't take this seriously." In an instant, the light pen was tossed to me with Mira looking somewhat depressed.

"T-Thank you, Kain." Mirajane in master's body spoke up.

I nodded before drawing six stick figures in the air along with a square.

"Alright, pretend the square is the spell. Now, when Natsu first read it, it switched the souls of six people and each were all next to each other." I explained as I started to erase four of the stick figures. "What I'm planning is that so only Jet and Droy are going to be in the guild," I drew a circle around the two figures and the square then drew a several stick figures outside the circle I labeled guild. "Then when everyone is a safe distance, the two will read out the spell, causing a switch. Since the spell does it automatically, it will switch to whoever is closest. Since there are only two targets, it should bring them back to their original body… you get it?"

"Of course! That's so simple!" Levy stated out loud before flushing. "I guess this needed a different kind of thinking than what I had out planed."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's just an idea. I don't know if this might backfire in some way," That seemed to scare Jet and Droy.

However, I just smiled. "So! … We'll get out of your way, and when we close the door behind us, you two read the spell, and come out if nothing or something happens. … Unless it's dangerous then handle it yourselves."

I am so good at this inspiring stuff. I should write a book.

  
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We all waited outside, after a flash coming from inside the building, everyone looked with anticipation before Jet opened the door with a smile.

"Guys! I'm back to normal!" He yelled as Droy soon followed.

"Whoo! Good thinking, Kain!" Lucy cheered as she and Levy praised me for the idea.

"Thanks," I responded before clapping my hands. "Now, Erza and Happy, you two go in and do what Droy and Jet did."

"Aaww what!? But I don't wanna!" Happy in Erza's body said. "I like being tall and pretty!"

"Happy, we are going to get our bodies back now move!" Erza in Happy's body yelled with all the vigor she could muster… it's too bad no matter how hard she was pushing, Happy wasn't budging.

However, I came with an idea that wasn't very orthodox. "Alright, I didn't want to do this. Happy, you're going to switch with Erza, and I'm going to explain why."

"Nothing you can say will make me want to go!" Happy huffed as he looked away from me.

I sighed before tapping on Erza's shoulder and telling Happy to close in before I whispered something in the ear he was borrowing.

As I finished, Happy stared in horror at me as I nodded. "It's true. All of it."

"We gotta switch, now!" Happy said as he grabbed his body and ran in with Erza.

Everyone was looking at me weirdly after seeing such a sudden change in Happy. I don't blame them for that really.

It seemed like Gray was the one brave enough to ask me what everyone was thinking. "Kain, what did you say to Happy that made him change his mind so quickly?"

I sighed as I looked around. Seeing as how most of us were adults here and one wyvern, I revealed what I had said. "If he wanted to stay as Erza, he was going to find out how Mother Nature works in the form of menstrual cramps."

Everyone at the mention blushed profusely. The females in male bodies blushed even more if possible.

"I-I want next!" Cana—wait no, Elfman cried out.

"No way, wait your turn, I'm next!" Master Makarov shouted desperately. Looks like he realized that having such a 'nice body' had disadvantages.

"Heck no! We're next! I can't stand drooling lava!" Loke in Natsu's body declared.

It didn't take much before everyone started fighting again.

There weren't that many left, so this shouldn't be a long time.

But it was going to be a _long_ time.

  
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After the fiasco known as the "Changeling" was over, we had to report what had happened on Galuna Island to Master Makarov.

"Lullaby and Deliora fused together? That is a disturbing omen." He seemed deep in thought after hearing such a story.

Erza nodded before putting a hand towards me. "We wouldn't have survived if not for Kain activating the mysterious weapon. I think it is safe to say that it is indeed one of the five super weapons if it could give even someone like Kain power to fight against a fused demon."

"That is also something we must address." Makarov stated more like a fact he was confirming rather than adding to a conversation.

However, this raised a lot of questions. I raised my right arm and the strange device in question to prove my point. "Uhh, what do I do now? The quest described these things making people go crazy and let's all be honest: no one here wants that."

"That is also true." Makarov then started to play with his mustache. "First of all, can you transform into this armor for me?"

I looked back at the device and nodded. With some hesitance, I pressed the button. However, my body did something strange before I could press it. I stood in a firm stance, threw both my hands out then brought them together quickly to have my left hand slam on to the Morpher on my right wrist. Despite me wondering why I did something so needlessly dramatic, in a flash of red light, I had easily transformed into the same armor I had on back on Galuna Island.

Everything felt different now that I was paying more attention to the armor. I could easily see the table, every single wooden line, every crevice, every bump, nook, and cranny. I could hear everyone around me, how their hearts were beating normally while beyond the walls, I could hear even others conversations as if I was right in front of them.

Besides smell, my hearing and sight had been amplified, maybe to Natsu's level or less but I had no idea how to measure that right now.

"Why did you do that posing?" Gray asked as I eased into the armor. Even though he said that in normal volume, my enhanced senses seemed to take that like he was screaming.

"Uhh, I don't know?" My own voice sounded somewhat filtered as it escaped the helmet. In all honesty, I sounded more heroic, which was cool. But why did I pose? Was it some kind of magical influence on my subconscious? Or was it my inner seven year old self doing a hostile takeover in my brain and forcing me to perform a cool pose before being a different universe Power Ranger? Maybe both? Questions for later though. "The weird thing though is that no matter how much I pressed this before, it wouldn't work. But after Symphony almost killed you guys, it then started to activate very easily."

"Why would it do that?" I don't know if it was me, or maybe the armor, but now it seemed like when Makarov started speaking again, his voice was back to normal, but I could still hear and focus on other conversations in the back if I wanted to. It was like the armor itself was trying to adapt to my senses.

I shrugged my shoulders, realizing that I didn't even feel the weight of the armor as I did so. "I don't know? There must have been some trigger besides a near death experience, but so much was going on that I don't think I would be able to pin point it."

The guild master seemed to muse deeply once more. "I think it would be a good idea to really test the limits of what your armor can and can't do. Then from there, we should start your training."

Hmm, he does have a point. Finding out what else I can do know would give me a better—wait a second. "Excuse me? What was that about training?"

I started to feel a bad pressure around me when I noticed not only Makarov, but Natsu, Erza, and Gray smirking at me. Master started speaking, "Power corrupts but a strong mind along with a strong body can help ease the soul and prevent something like that from happening. If these devices did corrupt their wielders, it is more than likely because no one was there to temper their growing power."

I've heard enough political and legal bull crap to know he's using pretty words to hide the ugly truth.

Makarov was going to train me like a Fairy Tail wizard even though I wasn't a wizard. After all the way of the warrior is the way of balance if all those kung-fu movies I watched meant anything.

It basically meant they were going to train me like a dog for a hound competition.

But now here comes my power play: do I call him out on it? Or do I play along?

… If there was anyone out there, what would you think I should do?

Let's just go for broke. "So, you're just going to train me how to fight like Erza?"

"What? No," Huh? Then why is he pointing to Erza right now? "You're going to be trained by Erza to fight like Erza."

Oh.

I looked over to the red head in question as a smile(?) spread across her lips. "Don't worry. I'll be easy on you for your first week."

Why is my 'bull-shit' sense tingling when she said that?

  
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[Later that day.]

Hello Ms. Floor, we have got to stop meeting like this.

… Have I said that before? It's kind of hard to really focus with my head spinning around… right round… like a record baby… right round round round.

  
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Due to Kain's currently questionable mind state, we will be switching to 3rd person point of view.

"Get up, Kain. While your swordplay has been improving, it is definitely going to need more work." Erza kindly said as held the wooden sword downward in a resting position while the two were on top of a padded floor in the middle of the guild.

The young and quite bruised man stood up much like a newborn baby deer, wobbling like crazy to stand up straight.

As he did, he tried to point his practice blade at Erza.

As he did, he pointed his practice blade to Droy who was Erza's opposite direction.

"Umm, Erza? I think all those blows to the head has finally caught up with him."

The red haired swordslady seemed to consider this voice of reason. "I suppose you're right. Kain, we are done for today. Do not forget to practice your swings." Erza said as she started walking over to the master.

The wobbly teen looked towards the one who said that and gave them a thumbs up. "Thanks a lot for saying that, Wakaba!"

"Kain, I'm Laki. Laki Olietta." The purple haired, wood make mage stated flatly.

"Yeesh, poor guy. I haven't seen Erza train someone this hard since Natsu's re learning of language." The real Wakaba commented as he viewed Kain with pity.

As if to prove Wakaba's point—even though it was painfully obvious to everyone in the guild—it looked like Kain was very close of collapsing right where he stood.

However, he did have one thing left to say to Laki. "Thanks, Wakaba, you have a nice penis."

Everyone gapped at the string of horrible words that Kain had just slurred out.

Laki in particular was flushed and was quite peeved at the comment. It didn't help that she in particular hated perverts most of all. "You pervert! Wood Make: Fist!"

However, while rage blinded her from realizing she was technically attacking someone with (hopefully) temporary brain damage, Kain had actually given up on being conscious and fainted right where he stood no sooner than he made that mistaken comment.

So Laki's attack flew over her intended target and hit Nab instead while he was still looking at the Job request board.

Nab looked back, more than a little annoyed at something hitting the back of his head. "You bastard! Whoever did that was toast!" In his fit of rage, he blindly attacked where his instincts felt the wooden fist came from. Laki avoided the magical blast, but Gray was unfortunately right behind her and it hit him instead.

No sooner than Gray got up from the blast, he instantly snarled and prepared an ice attack of his own. "Natsu!"

The attack was nowhere near his direction, but Gray didn't hesitate to fire an ice blast at his 'best' friend.

Soon, another all out brawl broke out on the guild, causing Makarov to sigh as chaos ensued.

"Master," Erza walked over to him despite the madness going around them. "Kain has been learning how to fight well… almost too well."

"So you've noticed it too huh? The legal and book information… that made sense because Kain was obviously studious, but as you were training him, his body and formed seemed to be growing as each second passed by."

Erza looked at the ironically peaceful Kain sleeping on the padded mat while everyone else continued fighting around him. "Every time I attacked him, I noticed his stance and poise get increasingly better over time. Kain has said he wasn't very physical to begin with, so how is that possible? Is it a hidden talent?"

Makarov instantly shook his head at the mention. "No, with all respect to Kain, he is the type of person who uses his brain than his muscles. It doesn't make sense for him to have such a hidden talent so it must be the device or Morpher as he coined it." Makarov stared deeply at the thing attached to the boy's wrist before taking a sip of his drink. After wiping his mouth, he continued, "The artifact is tuning his body to become more warrior-like from just fighting."

From the side, Mirajane asked with worry, "What should we do now, Master?" it seemed like she too heard about what was said about Kain gaining fighting ability quickly.

"Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we'll be testing his other attributes such as…"

  
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Strength!

Kain in armor was carrying a large metal platform. Then, Makarov and several other mages kept pilling more and more weight onto the platform for Kain to carry.

He was doing well… so well in fact that Natsu and Elfman felt threatened by Kain of all people and offered to do the same thing as well.

Unfortunately, Mira was able to convince the master to let them do that. It seemed like Kain's armor could handle a large amount of weight more than both Natsu and Eflman.

That was a bad thing.

Natsu, being the most competitive thing in existence, refused to lose to Kain of all people. In response, the young knight simply said, "I'm glad you think _so_ highly of me, buddy."

Snark aside, the young man from a different dimension started to panic when Natsu started pouring out fire to boost his strength.

The problem with this was that he was still in the _wooden_ guild.

I'll leave how bad it went to your imagination.

…

Then tell you to multiply it by three because that's how bad it went. (Gray picked a bad (or was it good?) time to go out to eat lunch.)

Despite how badly things escalated form there, they did find out that Kain was indeed as strong as a wyvern while using the armor.

  
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Speed!

This one was going to be a simply race to measure how fast he was going to be able to move. Jet was proud to be the one to help measure Kain's newfound speed since he prided himself as Fairy Tail's fastest speed mage—technically the only speed mage, but it was best to let him have his moment instead of standing the in the background all the time like he usually does with Droy.

"Don't worry, Kain, I'm naturally faster than even Erza using her speed armor. You shouldn't feel so bad if I leave you in the dust."

Unfortunately, the boy from another dimension was finding out that when Jet had the spotlight, the attention went straight up his ego. In retrospect, he does deserve these shining moments of attention in a guild full of monsters and big characters…

But Kain was a bitter son of a gun and decided to get even with the guy for making him feel belittled.

"Whaaa whoa!" Kain wobbled as he tripped nearby Jet before entering running position. Then he quickly got up. "Sorry, this thing is weird sometimes since it feels like a second skin."

"Don't worry about it!"

After Jet's comment, Mirajane shouted from the crowd a safe distance away from the two of them, "Race, begin!"

And with a sonic boom, Jet was off—hold on, why where his shoelaces tied together!?

"AAAHHH!?" Jet yelled as the magic made him trip up at sonic speed and crash into a toy store in the distance.

Everyone looked back at the starting line to see Kain just standing there. Despite wearing a visor, they could all tell by his body language he was as shocked as them, if not more.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh I thought he would just fall on his face when I tied his shoes together?" The boy offered weakly before noticing the large crashing noise coming in the distance. "W-We do have a healer in the guild, right?"

They didn't.

However, in terms of running speed, Kain was found to be half as fast as Jet. It was nothing to scoff at, and it appeared his speed could be even in his arms with how quickly he tied his shoelaces without anyone noticing.

Oh, and Jet was going to have a speedy recovery. Get it? Huh? Huh? He's a speed mage and he's going to have a speedy recovery?

No?

…

  
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Vitality!

"Look, I know I made all those debt raising threats so I could sometimes have you do petty chores for me, but those were all jokes! I really don't have the power to do that! So with that in mind, do we really have to do this?"

Kain was in the middle of a giant painted target in the middle of the park, surrounded by every guild member available.

All of them came. (Except Laxus, the Thunder Legion, Mystogan, and Gildarts)

All of them joined. (Except Laxus, the Thunder Legion, Mystogan, and Gildarts)

All of them were about to unleash hell on the poor knight. (You know in hindsight, it's a really a good thing the previously mentioned aren't here.)

Makarov sighed as he got a lacrima designed to measure pain tolerance ready. "Don't worry, Kain. The chance of you dying from this is 50-50."

"Wait wha—"

"Fire!"

As it turned out, the armor had actually nullified around 50 percent of the attacks flying right for him. However, it seemed to only weaken elemental based attacks, but not fully stop them. With this in mind, it essentially made magic near useless against Kain which would no doubt help him in future events.

Perhaps in the hands of someone like Erza, The Morpher would be such a devastating tool.

In Kain's hands, well…

The smoking knight slowly crawled out of a crater and shouted out in anger. "That's it! I'm quadrupling all your debts!"

Makarov face palmed as everyone fired another volley at the lawyer/accountant of Fairy Tail in response to that.

  
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Dexterity!

"No. I'm not doing this."

"But Kain—"

"Mira, this isn't an obstacle course, it's a death trap!" The alternate universe Power Ranger pointed towards the large area that was basically final obstacle course seen in the famous television show, Wipe Out. Only with less water and cushioned traps and a whole truck-ton of magical stuff everywhere.

"But how else, can we figure out your dexterity?" Mira was a little sad. She was the one to come up with this plan after a while and seeing her younger employee deny her ideas was hitting close to home.

"By measuring how fast I can run away from you all to avoid this." And with that… he did.

Unfortunately for the boy, the way the entire guild tried to hunt him down Magnolia was ironically more dangerous and destructive than the actual obstacle course.

Still, the armor also seemed to increase it by a large margin, but they couldn't quite specify it.

  
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Charisma!

Kain, wearing a nice tuxedo, sat on a romantic candle lit dinner for two… all alone by himself.

He slammed his fist on the table. "WHY ARE WE EVEN MEASURING THIS!?"

  
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And lastly… luck!

Kain looked around suspiciously. "Okay, so let me get this straight: all I have to do is power up the armor and walk down a block."

Makarov nodded as he prepared a floating lacrima meant to measure the time. "This one is a bit whimsical, but we do need to check it out. Alone, your luck is fairly abysmal, but we have to find out if the armor also amplifies this as it does with your ability to learn and your increase physical capabilities."

"You mean my luck might finally turn around? Sweet! Here I come!"

Kain was half way to his destination when a magic powered vehicle came speeding through the corner he was supposed to end and rammed into him. While the armor seemed to lessen the blow, Kain found himself stuck on the front of the vehicle as it kept moving in breakneck speed.

To his shock, Kain had found out the mad driver wasn't slowing down in the slightest and the knight started screaming when the vehicle went past the guild and jumped off the cliff looking out to the ocean. However, to his utter confusion, the vehicle started magically transforming mid air and turned into a boat before it landed on the water and speed away from Magnolia with a very befuddled knight in red.

It turned out that the one who captured him was none other than Agent 100 of Fiore's Secret Mage Service and they've been watching him for the past week and are deputizing him for a secret mission to save all of the continent of Ishgar from a power hungry mage looking to overthrow the King of Fiore.

The needed him and his Anti-magic armor to bypass a heavily fortified hidden base located in an active volcano named Mt. HooHaahaa. There, Kain had to fight through lasers, dino beasts, ninja mages, and Laser ninja mages who mutated into dino beasts.

All of this was done in order to stop a magical Nuke from killing everyone in the Capital City of Fiore, Crocus. When they got to the center of the secret base, the evil master mind, Mega Fluff, revealed to Agent 100 that he indeed was his father, which shattered the man and made him question the world he knew.

With incredible precision, and a inspiring speech he completely winged to Agent 100 with somehow not saying a single word, Kain fought off a super mutated laser ninja mage by kicking him hard on the crotch and was able to get stop the countdown launch codes down to the last two seconds.

However, it appeared Mega Fluff had a different plan all along in that he had a giant teleportation pad ready to send him and entire army of mutant ninja mages right inside the Secret Mage Service HQ and destroy it from the inside out.

Despite their best efforts, Agent 100 and Kain were unable to stop Mega Fluff from getting in the SMS HQ, which was located inside a different volcano, Mt. Supah Hut. In a attempt to save all of Earth Land, Agent 100 heroically sacrificed himself to stop Mega Fluff from releasing a truck ton of more magical nukes all over Ishgar, and made sure Kain got out safely through an escape pod that ejected him somewhere in the middle of the ocean as Mt. Supah Hut exploded.

That day, Ishgar was saved by the SMS, but that day, they also died without anyone ever knowing they existed… except Kain, which meant that if Kain ever tried to tell anyone about them, no one believe him since there was now no trace of them existing.

However, it wasn't the end as Kain's escape pod was fished up by pirates on their way to another volcano island that held Mt. Moltres. The Pirates where after the treasure of the Island God, Obama and after forcing Kain to activate and disarm the traps for them, they all came in front of a massive temple built for the Tiki God.

The renowned god of the island presented himself in front of the mortals and challenged to all of them by trail of combat…

Through a dance off.

Somehow, the Captain and Kain were able to pull off some of the most synchronized dancing in existence despite meeting not too long ago and defeating the god of interpretative dance.

In his defeat, Obama gave everyone his treasure: the gift of being able to dance and sing very well.

The pirates cheered in tears of pure joy as for finally realizing that treasure was only the second greatest treasure in the world. Right below the treasure of spending time with their friends.

For a job well done, Kain was given a boat to get back to Magnolia. However, on his way back he was swallowed whole by a whale and accidentally coughed out to the ancient underwater city of a name he couldn't pronounce so he decided to name it Not-Atlantis.

There, he was recruited by the mermaid rebel alliance to take down the evil tyrant, Shark King.

…

But by now you guys see where this is going so instead we will just list the amount of things that happened to Kain on his misadventures back to Magnolia.

After saving Not Atlantis, Kain was put in a beach where a clan of giant man-eating crabs were about to start their revolution.

After stopping the revolution by turning the man-eating crabs into vegans somehow, he had to join an archeologist traveling through a temple of doom where it turned out the greatest treasure all along was knowledge with friendship just underneath it.

After that treasure hunt, they actually did stumble on to some treasure hoard, which Kain did not hesitate to spend to get him straight back to Magnolia before something else went down.

Then he was abducted by aliens.

Longer story short, and with an alien volcano or two somewhere in there, the aliens were kind enough to drop him off back in Magnolia and reward Kain with artifacts that instantly disintegrated when touching Earthland's atmosphere, making him unable to sell what could have been millions worth in Jewels.

Finally, he walked back to his guild after a hectic week…

He happened to stop at the very block he was supposed to end before the stupidest adventure known to man had stolen him.

"Oh Kain, you've returned." Master Makarov, who was just there by coincidence, pressed something in a device that stopped the timer on the floating lacrima. "It took you ten days, four hours, three minutes, and twenty seven seconds to walk from one block end to the other."

After reading the numbers on the lacrima, the guild master slowly looked to the strangely silent and dirty knight. "I'll risk sounding like captain obvious when I say that the armor seems to amplify bad luck as well."

Every language in existence, be it future or past, have and will forever fail in describing how much of an understatement that was.

Erza spotted him as she was walking by. "There you are, Kain. We have a lot of training to catch up with in the week you missed. Oh and Mira wants to start charging rent for your room now."

The boy from another dimension seemed frozen like a statue before finally yelling out, "SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIIIII—"

A young and innocent Romeo Conbolt tugged on his father's coat as he pointed over to a still screaming Kain. "Papa, what does that B-word mean?"

Macao sighed deeply, silently cursing Kain for this.

  
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A young woman walked calmly as she looked at a sign that said, "Telo Mining City. Two Miles Down The Road."

"Oooh, Éclair!" A cartoonish looking bird flew closer to his companion as he pointed to the sign. "Can we go there?"

"Alright. It would be nice to see what this city has in store."

As the woman and the bird started making their way, they didn't notice a cloaked figure hiding behind several trees and stalking them without notice.

" _Found… them…_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gasp! New Author Notes for an old chapter!? Notes that I didn't copy and paste from almost two years ago?! What is this madness?!
> 
> So yeah. This was just a fun little filler of craz(ier)y shenanigans. Nothing too big. 
> 
> But on the bright side, you guys are going to be treated to an Original Arc! Best of all, if I don't forget this site exists again, you guys might be able to get that entire arc in one day which is about four chapters! (I might also have to review over some of them, I think there are some obvious typo mistakes that I've been putting off correcting for far too long in some of them.)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for supporting this fic guys. Hopefully this time, I can upload this faster and keep it cross posted with Fanfiction soon this year.

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of the first stories I'm posting in AO3. Currently, the version of this story in Fanfiction is ahead, and the chapters here will be posted weekly until they catch up.


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